Talpa Has A Sister
by Wildfire2
Summary: The boys meet some mysterouse girls.. and when Ryo gets captured by the Dynasty they have to go in after him. finshed
1. Default Chapter

I don't own the Ronin Warriors, I just like the storyline, so I wrote a story on them. Kay?   
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"Talpa Has A Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter One   
It was snowing outside as a boy with black hair walked up the volcano side. He slipped on some ice, but caught himself before he fell too far down. He looked around, then started up the volcano once again. When he reached the top he looked around. Then, he shouted, "Armor of the Wildfire! Tao Jin!" He jumped into the volcano.   
*****   
A boy with blonde hair came down the stairs, then looked around; he then asked the boy in the kitchen that had sandy brown hair, "Hey, Cye, have you seen Ryo? I need to talk to him."   
Cye turned around and said, "Yeah, he went up to the volcano. The finals are making him so on the edge. I told him to go on down to the volcano to relax for a little bit. Once his armor is hot and powerful enough, he'll come back. What do you need to talk to him about, Sage?"   
Sage smiled to himself, "For a second there I thought you were going to say he'll come back when he's hungry."   
"Hey, he's not Kento," Cye said, pointing a fork at him. The two boys both started laughing.   
"Hey, what's so funny down here?" a boy with bright blue hair said as he came down the stairs.   
"Oh, just talking about Ryo," Sage told him.   
"Oh, is that all?" Rowen rolled his eyes. "Sage, have you seen my book on Strata? I can't find it anywhere."   
"Ah... let me think. Did you leave it in the car?" Sage asked him.  
"Yeah, now that I think about it, I think I did. I'll go get it right now."   
"Don't bother, Rowen. Kento went out to get dinner. We'll be lucky if we get anything. That is, if he even comes back TONIGHT. He went to his favorite restaurant," Cye said, shaking his head   
"Which one would that be, Cye? I didn't Kento had just one favorite restaurant!"   
"He doesn't, we didn't tell him just one restaurant to go to."   
*****   
Kento stood staring at the buffet. "Food, food, food... so much food... what to get... what to get... HA HA HA! Foood! HE HE HE!"  
"Excuse me, sir, but we're going to have to ask you to leave," a young woman asked with her head down.   
"What? Why? What did I do?"   
"Well, sir, you've run around are restaurant for almost an hour yelling 'food'. You're disturbing the other customers."   
"Fine, I'll get food from somewhere else, then!"   
"Well, we don't want you to go away mad, so... we'll let you buy a party plate. It can serve up to ten people, and it's only ten-fifty," she said hopefully.   
"Okay, whatever. Here you go. Bye..." Kento walked out to his car. "Hmm, I better put this in the back so I can make it home with it, otherwise my friends will kill me!"   
*****   
Ryo sat at the bottom of the volcano, meditating. Huh? How long have I been down here? I'd better get home before the guys start to worry. Hey, what was that? It couldn't be, could it? Nah, it's not possible, is it? It felt like Talpa, but that's... but he's dead, Ryo thought to himself   
"Oh, Ryo of Wildfire, you are funny!" came a female voice. "So you're the one who killed my brother. My brother, Talpa, that is. Well, I'm here to take revenge for him. And of course Inferno, too! HE HE HA!"   
"Man, you laugh as bad as Kayura! Try all you want, lady, but all you'll get is what Talpa got! Death!" Ryo said, still trying to find her.   
"We shall see, Wildfire, we shall see. Now go and tell your little friends about me! HA HA HA!" The girl's voice faded out but just before it was all gone he saw a thin woman with spiked brown hair.   
"Hey, where is she? Dammit, she left! How am I supposed to tell the guys this?! Ahhhhhhh! This sucks!"   
  
I don't own the Ronin Warriors, I just like the storyline, so I wrote a story on them. Kay? 


	2. Chapter 2

"Talpa Has A Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Two   
Ryo headed down the volcano with his head down (too far down). Then he was pushed over, to his surprise. He looked up to see a beautiful girl looking at him. She looked about the same age as him but a lot more frail. She had her long blond-brownish hair in a high ponytail. She had green eyes, the prettiest he had ever seen, and she was about 5'6", a little shorter than him, but not much.  
"Ooh, I'm sooo sorry, sir, I wasn't watching where I was going. You see, my little sister has run off, and I can't find her. I thought I saw her run over here, but I guess that was you and not her. Oh, I'm so sorry, are you all right?"  
"Yea, and it was my fault not you're I wasn't watching where I was going. I'm Ryo, and who are you?"  
"Katie, but call me Kat."  
"Kay, do you need help finding your sister?"  
"Oh, would you? Her name is Ally. It's not like her to run like this, it really isn't. It's just my parents and..."  
"That's enough, I get the point."  
"Thanks again, you don't know how much this means to me, really." He is really hot! Really really hot, and so sweet. He's so sweet that maybe I should tell him that... I'm... no, I can't, it could put him in danger. But he is so sweet, and I have this feeling that I should tell him... No! I can't. But he is hot!  
"Do you have any idea where she'd go? Any favorite hiding places, anything?"   
*****   
"Okay, now I'm starting to worry; where the hell is Ryo, excuse my language."  
"Calm down, Rowen you look like a really mad pig of some sort. And plus, I'm sure Ryo has a really good reason to be taking so long at the volcano. OR AT LEAST HE BETTER!"  
"Now who needs to calm down, SAGE?"  
"Shut up, ROWEN!! Hey, what about Kento? He hasn't come back either, but I have this feeling Kento's fine, but Ryo, ahh, I don't like this not one bit. Going to the volcano for an hour or two, even three, fine. But eight? Ahhhhh, he better have a really good excuse!"  
"I'm home and I have food!"  
"Hey, Kento, what did you get?"  
"I think it's hot dogs. Cye, do we have any pop? What, where's Ryo?"  
"Yes, we have pop, and no, we have no idea where Ryo is. He went up to the volcano eight hours ago. Tell you the truth, I don't think even his armor could take all that power in without blowing up!"  
"Well, did you check the volcano?"  
"No."  
"Why not, isn't that where he's supposed to be!? And you call me stupid sometimes. I really wonder."   
*****   
"Yeeeeeeeee, help!"  
"Ally?!"  
"Come on, it came from over here." Ryo grabbed Kat's hand and pulled her over toward the scream.  
"HA HA HA! Well, look what the cat dragged in! HA HA HA HA! I'm sorry, does this belong to you?" Talpa's sister held up the little girl.  
"Put her down... ahhh... Talpa's sister. Now that is unless you want to have a face... thingy."  
"HA HA HA HA! Oh, silly me, did I forget to tell you my name? It's Trots, remember it well, for it shall be your doom!"  
"One, stop that laugh! Two, why is the world does every single evil thing say to remember their name cause it will be our doom, but it never is! Just a question."  
"Ally! Hold on."  
Ally turned around and bit "Trots" in the arm. Trots, not ready for that, dropped the little girl, but Ryo of course was ready and caught the little girl and set her down. He looked up to see the all and mighty powerful holding her arm and crying!  
"You'll pay for that, you brat! But another day, and that goes for you too, RYO! So long! Ha HA HA HA... Ha... Ha... ha!"  
"Ally, are you all right, sweetie? Why did you run off like that? You scared me. You also scared Kit out of her wits; you know how she is!"  
"I'm sorry, but I thought I saw Mommy and Daddy."  
"It's all right, but Mommy and Daddy can never come back, sweetie; you know that, don't you?"  
"Woo, hold it, why can't they?"  
"Well, they died in a car; it was head-on, they never had a chance. They even didn't have their seatbelts on!"  
"I'm sorry, but you told me they were fighting?"  
"I know, but I thought that you would help me if I started out like that and-"  
"Okay, I get it, but who's Kit?"  
"She's my twin sister."   
*****   
Okay, that's long enough, let's eat without him. Maybe then he'll learn not to stay out at a ll hours of the night!"  
"Kento, I said it once and I 'll say it again THAT we're not eating without RYO, GOT IT!!"  
"But I'm hungryyyy, I need food, and it's his problem, not ours. He shouldn't be out at, what is it, ten! Most people eat at six!! ROWEN!!"  
"Kento, you didn't even come back till eight!"  
"What's your point, Sage!"  
"Shut up, just shut up, everyone shut-up, got it, SHUT UP!!"  
"Okay, Cye, calm down, breathe in and out."  
"Don't tell me to calm down. Ryo is out there somewhere, probably lost! And you tell ME to calm down!!"   
*****   
"So, you and your sisters do have a place to stay, right?"  
"Well, kinda, if you count the bridge as a place to call home sweet home."  
"A bridge, you live under a bridge?"  
"YES, we do, do you have a problem with that, cause if you do get over it right now."  
Ryo turned to where the voice came from to see another Kat, except this one had dyed red hair.  
"Ryo, this is my twin Kit; as you can probably tell, she's dyed her hair red! He he he!"  
"Yep, so why don't you stay with as, we have lot of room and I'm sure we'd all love to have you?"  
"Who's we, pretty boy?"  
"Well, KIT, we is my friends and I."  
"Fine, one more question, though. How did you know that... girl?"  
"Long story, too long!"  
"Oh okay, but if I were you I'd stay away from her; you have no idea who you're dealing with. Little boy!"  
"Really, and you do? She said something about her brother, do you know who that brother is? No, I don't think you do."  
"Kit, Kat, stop. Think about it, Trots knew Ryo, remember Kat, that means he knows her!"  
"Ally's right, Kit, she did know him and I don't think she liked him very well. In fact, if I'm not mistaking she downright hated him!"  
"Is this true, little boy?"  
"One, you ever call me little boy again I'm going to beat you down. Two, yes, it is."  
"Well, then she'll probably come after him, and of course that means we have to defend him. Great, I'm stuck with a no-good pig-headed freak!"  
"One, what do you mean you have to defend ME? Two, I am not a no-good pig-headed freak, got it!"  
"Ryo, I'm not going to get on your back, but you have no idea what you're dealing with. This thing is far more than gang members at the local bar."  
"Look, Kit I know what I'm dealing with better then you could ever know!"  
"Ryo, I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to side with my sister. She's right, and plus you don't even have the proper gear to fight her."  
"And you do?"  
"Well, yes. We have armors. My armor is the Armor of the Jungle, and Kat's is the Armor of the Forest, and even little Ally has an armor, the Armor of the Flower. They have a magical power so we can defeat the evil."  
"Arm... where did you get these armors?"  
"Oh you know, at the nearest 7-11. There's still some there if you want one."  
"Ha ha ha, very funny. I'm not kidding."  
"A guy named Anubis gave them to us."  
"ANUBIS!! Oh great, this is just great. Ha, great, now what do I do?"  
"You go home, forget you ever met us, and get on with your life."  
"Did Anubis tell you any thing about what you're going to be doing in the next mouth or so? Like tell you the legend of your armor?"  
"Well, yes he did. You see, there was this guy who created the Ronin and Warlord armor. The Ronins were-"  
"I know that legend!"  
"Oh, okay, well, after he created their armors, a guy told everyone he could do the same thing. Of course no one believed him, so he would spend all his time working on them. He did it, believe it or not, three armors, but the third was different. It could be worn by anyone, not just one size, it would grow with that person, powers and all. The Armor of the Flower, little Ally's armor."  
"Well, one question, what about the Ronin and Warlord armors, what did Anubis have to say about them?"  
"Not much; he just told us the legend of them and Inferno. Inferno is really powerful."  
"Yea, I know. For fighting us at one time he didn't tell you much."  
"You fought against Anubis?"  
"Yea, when he was evil, but he turned good along with the other Warlords."  
"Who are you, no really, who are you?"  
"I am Ryo of the Wildfire, also of the Inferno. I am the leader of the Ronin Warriors. I am the one who defeated Talpa and I'll probably be the one who defeats Trots."  
"Well... I..."  
"Ryo, is that you? Ryo, are you out here? Ryo?"  
"Other Ronin Warriors you should meet. I'm over here!"  
"Ryo where have you been? We were worried sick."  
"Yea, and who are these really strange girls that are giving me a dirty look?"  
"No, Kento, they're giving me a dirty look, not you they're mad at, me cause I didn't tell them that I was Ryo of the Wildfire."  
"What, you told them that you are Ryo of the..."  
"Sage, calm down and let them introduce themselves."  
"Hi, I'm Ally. I'm five years old. Guess what, I'm also known as Ally of the Flower. That's because that's the armor I wear."  
"Kat of the Forest, happy to meet you."  
"Kit of the Jungle, and I don't like you, got it?"  
"Kit stop it, they're here to help!"  
"Well, they know who I am but, not you, introduce."  
"Sage of the Halo."  
"Cye of the Torrent."  
"Rowen of the Strata."  
"Kento of the Hardrock."  
"There's of course White Blaze too, he's my tiger. Well, let's go home now. Oh, by the way, they're staying with us."  
"What?!" all the other Ronins said at the same time while the girls gave them smug looks. 


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, people, this chapter takes place about a week after they all met. Kit still hates everyone but her sisters, and Trots is nowhere to be found.   
"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Three   
Hey Diary, this is Kat.   
OOOO, I think I love Rowen. I mean, at first I thought I liked Ryo, but when I saw Rowen... he is just so cute! Trots is still in hiding. I think she wants more then just Inferno, I think she likes Ryo. Ywwwwweee, nasty for Ryo. I don't think she's the only one, Kit, I think she likes him too. Why does she have to be so... rude? She wasn't always so mean, just when Mom & Dad died. Oooh, well, I better go check on Ally, probably with Sage, she loves him soo much, it's so cute!   
"Ryo, where's my yellow hat?"  
"I don't know, Kento, I don't wear that hat of yours." Never will, either.   
******   
Oh, he is cute; shame I have to kill him just for the Armor of Inferno. Jungle, Forest and Flower will be easy to defeat but the other Ronins will be harder to beat. I should go and test all of their powers, see their limits. Hmmm, I think a hundred soldiers should do for Forest and the others, but Ryo, I'll have to get him alone. That way I can test him myself. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA... HA. Trots walked out of the throne room.   
******   
"Kit, can I have a glass of milk?"  
"Yeah, of course you can."  
"Can I have the cup with the toys on it, pleaseeee?"  
"Let's see if it's clean. Okay, what do we have in here, oh, here it is."  
"Hey, has anyone seen Ryo? I need to talk to him."  
"About what, Sage?"  
"None of your business, Kento. Now, where is he?"  
"He's outside with White Blaze."  
"Thank you, Cye."  
"Ryo?"  
"Yeah, what is it, Sage?"  
"Well, this enemy of ours. Do you think we can beat her? I mean, I've never seen her or anything but she seems intense."  
"Sage, she's a wimp. She's trying to make us think she's strong by hiding so we get nervous." Or at least I hope. Damnit, why is she doing this?  
"Yeah, I guess so."  
"Shh, listen..."  
"Soldiers!"  
"Guys, get out here nowwww."  
The soldiers came out of hiding and started fighting just as the others made it out.  
"Let's armor up, guys."  
"Armor of Strata!"  
"Armor of Halo!"  
"Armor of Torrent!"  
"Armor of Hardrock!"  
"Armor of the Forest!"  
"Armor of the Jungle!"  
"Armor of the Flower! Tao chi!"  
"Ryo, why aren't you putting on your armor? Ryo, where you? Ryo? RYO!!"   
******   
"Huh, where am I? I was about to fight the Dynasty and now I'm here?"  
"HA HA HA! Hello there again, I thought I'd have more fun with just you."  
"Ooh, I'm touched. Armor of the Wildfire!"  
"OO, you're even cuter with your armor on."  
"We'll see just how cute I am when you're on fire."  
The two started to fight, Trots just using regular swords. Ryo was of course using his twin katanas.   
******   
"Arrow Shockwave!"  
"We've got to find Ryo, we have to find him now!"  
"Kit, are you worried?"  
"Rowen, stop joking around and watch your back!"  
"Wooo, that was close."  
"Where is everyone else?"  
"Fighting somewhere; I'll go see if I can see them from the trees. Watch my back, kay?"  
"Whatever, just go, I want to make sure Ally is all right; this is her first fight!"  
"I see them, Ally is with Kat over to the north, Kento and Cye are to the west, and Sage is to the east."  
"What's to the south, Blue Boy, and hurry up, I can't take them all on for much longer."  
"Nothing that I can see... wait... is that fire?"  
"What are you babbling about up there?"  
"I think I found Ryo. He's near the bay." Bad place for the Wildfire. "So where's all the soldiers?"  
"You took too long up there, I finished the job!"  
"Hey, what are you guys talking about now?"  
"ROWEN thinks he found Ryo."  
"Well, where is he? Is he okay?"  
"I don't know, I just saw fire. He was by the bay."  
"The bay is good for my armor, the Armor of Torrent, but bad for Wildfire."  
"Yeah, I suggest we get down there."   
******   
Trots jumped back and put away her swords. Then she looked at him panting and grabbed a pole-like thing. In between pants he looked up; it looked like Kento's weapon but it was bigger, thicker, and pure black. She held it up and said, "You ready?"  
"Yea, sure, why not?"  
She jumped at him. Ryo, totally pooped out, was hit backwards. He landed hard against a rock and passed out. Then his armor left or faded away.  
That was easy, he is nothing without his friends. I'll leave him this time to suffer in his defeat.   
"Ryo, where are you?"  
"I see him, he's over here!"  
"Ryo, Ryo, wake up! RYO!"  
"Huh, what happened? Where am I?"  
"You just finished battling Trots. Okay, let's get you home." 


	4. Chapter 4

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Four   
Kit walked down the stairs.   
"How's he doing, Kit?" Rowen asked, not looking away from his book.   
"Still has an awful headache; Sage, I thought you said you could heal the ribs?" Kit responded.  
"I can, just as soon as I can get some rest; it takes a lot out of you."   
"Ryo! What are you doing down here!" Kat asked, turning around.  
"Ryo! Get back to bed, you need your rest!!" Kento ordered.   
"If I stay in bed any longer... I'm going to kill myself," Ryo said, mumbling something no one could hear, and rubbing his head.  
"Do you want something to eat, Ryo?" Kit asked, getting up.   
"No, not yet. But thanks anyway, Kit," Ryo said and Kit sat back down.   
"So, now that you're up... what should we do about our enemy? I mean, if you can't beat her, and you have the most powerful armor, what chance do we have?" Rowen asked   
"Yeah, I have the most powerful armor, but I didn't use it. Wildfire wouldn't have killed Talpa, and Trots is his sister, so I didn't think it would kill her either. Think about it, Rowen!"   
"He does have a point there, Rowen," Cye said with a smirk.   
"Whose side are you on anyway, CYE!!" Rowen asked and put his book down.   
"Well, anyway, I think she may be pretty focused on Ryo, that seems to be her favorite," Kat said, smiling.  
"What do you mean, Kat? Talpa didn't have a favorite," Ryo asked, confused. Kit and Kat rolled their eyes.   
"Talpa was a boy, Trots is a girl, there's a difference, a big difference," Kit said, and Ryo tried to say something when he relized his painkiller had worn off.   
"Ahhh, my ribs... do we have any more painkiller?" Ryo grunted.  
"Hold on, Ryo, I'll see," Kit said, standing up.   
"Thanks, Kit. Ahhh, hurry," Ryo said through gritted teeth.  
"Ohh, we're out, sorry," Kit said, frowning.  
"Hold in there, Ryo. I think I can heal your ribs now, or at least your head." Sage got over to where Ryo sat. "Ammmmmmmm... damn it, Ryo, let me help!" Sage frowned. Ryo can be so stubborn. He was never like this when there wasn't a battle going on. Well, he sometimes is, Sage thought.   
"I can't," Ryo said, not looking at Sage.  
"Why?" Sage asked, crossing his arms.  
"Because you're still too weak!"   
"I'll sleep peacefully, you will not, there's a difference, Ryo. Please let me help, I'll be tired but not in pain, where you will be in pain," Sage pointed out.  
"NNNNO, ahhh, I'll bbe ffiinne," Ryo said, starting to shake.  
"Ryo, you're trembling, you're not fine."   
"I'll BE fine!" Ryo corrected.  
"Yeah, in time, but time is something we don't have. Ryo, we don't know when Trots well strike again. Nothing to you, Sage, but Ryo, you're a lot more important than he is, or anyone for that matter," Rowen said.  
"No, that's not true, if any of you are too weak then I can't create the Inferno."   
"Ryo, the armor of Inferno is the most powerful, but Wildfire is the second most powerful. Then the rest of the armors are equal. I think," Cye said, entering the conversation.   
Rowen looked at the twins and their little sister, who was sleeping on Kat's lap. "Not to change the subject, but what are your surekills?"   
"Ally has a squirt gun; it doesn't have a surekill that we know of, yet. Where she shoots it, flowers pop up. Kat has forest leaves, really sharp leaves more or less, cuts them up pretty badly. I have jungle vine. Vines grab them and choke them. More or less," Kit told him.  
"AAAAAhhhhhhh!" Ryo said as he tried to get up.   
"RYO! You okay?" Kento asked with a worried face.  
"NO, do I look okay to you?" Ryo said as his temper got the better of him.   
"Then let Sage help you, Ryo!" Rowen said, getting annoyed.  
"Stay out of this, Rowen!"   
"Why should he? Ryo, you are important to the team. Let Sage help," Kento said, standing up.   
"Kento, don't talk. This does not concern you either," Ryo said with a hand movement.   
Cye's eyes went wide at that comment, "The hell it doesn't; it concerns us all, Ryo!"   
"So when did you decide to join, CYE, NO ONE ASKED YOU TO JOIN!!"   
"Ryo, calm down. You need all your strength. If you're not going to let Sage heal you, that is," Kat said, also annoyed.  
"KAT!! That..."   
Kit, fed up with this, grabbed Ryo's shirt collar and kissed him on the lips, then dropped him back down, and said, "Stop; like Kit said, you'll need your energy."   
All Ryo could get out was, "Yes ma'am." He blushed so much it looked like his head was on fire. Kit just stood there.   
It took the others a couple of seconds to realize what just happened and start cheering. "Yeah, go Kit!"   
HA HA! ::whistle whistle::   
"You tell him, Kit!"   
"Get a room!"   
Ryo had enough of this, so he yelled as loud as he could without being in pain, "STOP!" Then turned to Kit and said, "What was that and why did you do it?"   
"It was a kiss, and I did it to calm you down, I thought it worked, but now I'm not so sure. Well, you let Sage heal you yet, please," Kit said with pursed lips.   
"FINE, if everyone will get off my back."   
"Calm down, Ryo, this won't work unless you're calm," Sage said.  
"GOOD, I don't want it to work!" Ryo crossed his arms.  
"RYO, CALM DOWN, NOW, OR I'll kiss you again," Kit threatened. Ryo gave her a dirty look, but he shut up.   
"Okay, Ryo, just stay calm, this will only take a second but you're going to get a little dizzy. Try to let it in, otherwise it might hurt, kay?" Sage said with one eyebrow lifed.   
"Fine, whatever."   
*****   
Trots stood watching the Ronins, and thought, Maybe I shouldn't have let him go. Maybe I should have kept him to myself. He is so cute, when he's angry his face gets so red, it's so cute. I will somehow make him mine; he will be my king. Whether he likes it or not, he will be mine!  
"Ah, my lady, can I ask you something?" Daller asked.  
"Never call me lady, call me Master Trots like how my brother was called. What is it?"  
"Can I kill the Ronin Warriors, Forest, Jungle and Flower?" Daller said in a pleading voice.  
"No, you can have Forest, Jungle, Flower, Halo, Hardrock, Torrent and Strata, but Wildfire is mine. No, on second thought, go ahead and kill whatever you want to, everyone else, but bring Wildfire to me!"  
"Yes, my... Master Trots." Daller bowed low to the ground.  
"Now leave me, I wish to be alone." Trots pointed to the door. Daller left the room, and Trots started to watch Ryo again through the looking glass.   
*****   
Ryo opened his dresser, pulled out some clothes, and headed to the shower. When he got in the bathroom he was about to get undressed and get in, but as he started to take off his shirt he was thrown backwards into the wall. With his breath totally knocked out of him, he couldn't even get up.  
Then something hit him in the side again and again. Someone was kicking him in the side and it hurt. Even though Sage healed his ribs they were still tender, and this was not helping them.  
"Hey, Ryo, you in there man? I need my toothbrush, can I come in?" Rowen said in a sleepy voice.  
Ryo heard someone talking, he thought it might be Rowen, but he could barely breathe, let alone yell for help.   
"Come on, Ryo, I'm tired, let me in please! Or at least push it under the door, I'm tired."  
The kicking stopped. Ryo took the chance, he grabbed his foot with all the strength he had in him and threw the guy into the shower. Ryo started to crawl to the door with one hand on his side.  
Rowen, hearing the crash, knew something was really wrong. He started to bang on the door, shouting, "RYO, RYO, RYO, WHAT'S GOING ON, RYO?"  
Ryo almost reached the door when he was again hurled into the wall. Rowen, hearing the crash again, just hoped Ryo wasn't near the door, cause he was coming in. He started to ram up against the door, but it didn't budge. Rowen started to worry; the door should have gone down easy.  
"Kento, KENTO! GET UP HERE, I NEED YOUR HELP, KENTO!!" Rowen screamed.  
Kento, along with everyone else, ran up the stairs. "What's wrong, Rowen?"  
"Ryo is trapped in there and I don't think he's alone. I can't get the door to move," Rowen said, panting for breath. Kento looked at it, then made his hand into a fist and hit it. It made a huge hole in the door.  
The guy hitting Ryo looked up and smiled. He looked down and said, "Your friends are here," then looked back up.  
Kento then kicked it and the door went falling down. He looked in to see Ryo lying on the ground holding his side, half out of it. Standing in front of him was a tall guy, about 6'7, with long black hair, black eyes, and well built. He looked at Kento with an evil smile on his face.  
Rowen suddenly yelled, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?"   
"The name is Daller and I want you to die." The smile got wider. "But I'll help you with the dying part, hehehe."  
"That's okay, but if it's a fight you want we can help you on that," Kento said, putting on his armor.  
"I'd love to fight, but I can't. Master Trots ordered me to take Wildfire to her first." Daller disappeared and Ryo went with him.  
"NOOOOO," Kit started to scream, "come back, please come back!" Kat turned and started to cry in Rowen's arms. Ally ran out of the room crying. Sage, seeing Ally run out and worrying that the little girl might get in trouble, ran after her. Cye went and tried to comfort Kit. Kento just stood there and stared for a moment, then he started punching the walls, making huge holes. Cye didn't care just as long as it wasn't a person. Sage walked back in carrying Ally in his arms; she was crying. He looked like he was about to cry himself.   
*****   
"Master Trots?"  
"Bring him to me. I want to see him."  
"Yes, Master." Daller walked out of the room. He came back in five minutes later, followed by soldiers who were pushing Ryo along.   
"Good, now leave us. I wish to be alone," Trots said and Daller and the other solders left. Trots turned to Ryo who had his arms tied behind his back. He gave her a dirty look. "What's the matter, Ryo? Does your side still hurt? I guess it would, since you had no armor to protect you. I see that you never did put on your armor. Hehehe."  
"I didn't have time, and plus I thought it might please you if I did," Ryo said and put on a fake smile. Trots slapped him across the face.   
*****   
"Ally's asleep," Kat said as she walked down the stairs. She went and sat down beside Rowen. Rowen put his arm around her.   
"So how do we find Ryo?" Kit asked, holding a hot cup of coffee.  
"Well, Kit, first we have to find a way into the Dynasty. Than we go from there. We have no way to get in, either. We always got help from the magic staff before, but now we have no way in. I mean, there's no way to get to Kayura, she lives in the Dynasty," Rowen said, then put his head in his hands, and sighed. "I need to go for a walk, anyone wanna come?"  
"I'll go with you Rowen, just let me get my shoes on," Kat said and grabbed her shoes.  
"Kay, but hurry, Kat." Kat put on her slip-on shoes and they walked outside.  
"Rowen, do you think Ryo's alive?" Kat asked.  
"Yeah, Ryo's a survivor. He'll be fine," Rowen said, taking a deep breath.  
"Has Ryo ever been captured before?"  
"Now that I think about it, no. He's always getting us out." Rowen stopped think for a moment.  
"Have you ever been captured, Rowen?" Kat said, putting on a smile for Rowen.  
"Kinda more or less trapped in space. Ryo got me out of that one as well. The others have. When we still fought Talpa, Sage, Kento, and Cye were all captured. I was for a little while, but I planned it that way so Ryo would know where to go. But he's never been captured or even trapped until now." Rowen started walking again and Kat followed close behind.  
"We will find him, Rowen, I promise you that."  
"I know, I just hope he's okay." Rowen stopped walking and looked at Kat. He gave her a hug. They just held each other for a while before they started to walk again.   
*****   
"He's in the dungeon just as you wanted, Lord," Daller said with his head down.  
"Good, he will be my king no matter what." Trots turned around and muttered to herself, "Resist me all you want, Wildfire, but I always get what I want, always."   
*****   
Huh, where am I... ooh, I was captured, I remember now, and that Trots is still hanging all over me... nasty... I hope the others are all right. Ryo stood up and shuddered at the cold, with out his armer he realized how cold the Dynasty really was. He thought about putting it on a nd decided against it.   
Ryo looked around his room; it reminded him of those old Western flicks with the prisons. Three brick walls, one with a window with bars on it, and the fourth wall just plan bars, and the door.  
Nice room. He looked up to see a tiny hole in middle of the ceiling. It was tiny but it looked like he could widen it pretty easily. The only problem was getting up there. His ribs still hurt pretty badly but he could ignore it, for now.   
*****   
"What time is it, Sage?" Kento asked, as the all sat in the living room trying to make a plain. They could think of none.  
"Three o'clock in the morning," Sage said in a yawn.  
"What do we do? We can't just sit here, Ryo needs us!" Rowen said, standing up.  
"Rowen, I think the best thing to do right now is to try to get some sleep. We're not helping Ryo if we're too tired to fight!" Cye said, standing up and going upstairs.   
*****   
Ryo finally found a wall with enough cracks and bumps that he could climb up it, but the hole was in the middle of the ceiling and he was not seeing a way to the middle.  
Hey, I'll figure it out once I get up there. I have got to get out of here; the guys might need me. I'm their leader, I should have watched my back.  
Ryo started to climb. When he got to the top, he looked around and saw something; he got a little surprised. There was a horizontal ladder going straight to the hole. It's a trap, but I have to take the chance. I need to get out and this is the only way. Ryo got to the hole, made it larger and slipped through it.   
*****   
"Morning, Sage," Kit said, yawning.  
"You're up early, Kit, couldn't sleep?" Sage asked with anouther fake smile.  
"No, you?" Kit asked.  
"I can sleep fine. I always get up this early," Sage said, then thought to himself, But I don't usally stay up THAT late!  
"Oh, Sage, you know Ryo really well, right?" Kit asked.  
"Yeah, why?" Sage asked.  
"Do you think Ryo's still alive?" Kit said quickly.  
"If I know Ryo, he's alive and halfway out of the Dynasty by now," Sage said, smiling.  
"Really?" Kit said, looking hopeful.  
"Yeah, well, maybe not halfway out, but he's definitely escaped by now. I wouldn't worry." Sage patted her back, then went into the living room. 


	5. Chapter5

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Five   
"Rowen, wait up."  
"Ally? What are you doing out here?"  
"Well, I haven't told Kit or Kat yet, but I do have a sure kill too, kinda."  
"You do? What is it?"  
"Well, I say Flower Joy. It makes them really happy and kinda dizzy."  
"Flower Joy? Well, okay, that sounds cool."  
"Rowen, I know how to get to Ryo."  
"Really, how?"  
"Well, if I do Flower Joy on the enemies right before they enter the Dynasty, they'll get happy and let us enter the Dynasty."  
"You know what, that might actually work."  
"Of course. I'm smart. I start kindergarten next year, you know."  
"Yeah, I know."  
"Well, then we better get going. Ryo told me in my dream last night that troops are coming today. He's the one that told me how to use my sure kill; I knew I had it but I didn't know how to use it."  
"Ryo talked to YOU!"  
"Yea, he says that he's out of the dungeon but still has a long way to go before he gets out of the castle."  
"Did he say where he was in the castle?"  
"Some kind of a tunnel, he thinks it might be a trap but they haven't done anything yet."  
"Oh, is this the first time he has talked to you, Ally?"  
"No, he talked to me when he first got out of the dungeon, but he's still crawling through that tunnel. He says his legs are really starting to cramp, and his side still hurts really bad."  
"I can understand that, but when are the troops coming?"  
"Sunset or as he put it, at dusk."  
"THAT'S THAT, RIGHT NOW, COME ON, let's GO!!" Rowen grabbed Ally's arm and pulled her toward the house as quick as possible.  
"Sage, Kento, Cye, everyone, get ready to fight!"  
"What?"  
"Just get ready, you too Ally."  
"Wait, that sounds like soldiers, Rowen, how did you know?"  
"Never mind that, Sage, just get ready. This might be the only chance we get to get to Ryo."  
"WHAT??! Woo, they're here. Let's armor up!"  
"Armor of Strata!"  
"Armor of Hardrock!"  
"Armor of the Halo!"  
"Armer of Torrent!"  
"Armor of the Forest!"  
"Armor of the Jungle!"  
"Armer of the Flower!"  
Kit pulled out her whip and started to slash the soldiers. When the soldiers stopped, they looked around and saw Daller standing there laughing.  
"NOW, ALLY, DO IT NOW!"  
"FLOWER JOY!" Ally squirted her squirt gun; it turned into a flower and it went around his neck. He stopped fighting and started laughing really hard, then he started talking like he was drunk or something  
"Oh. Hello there, how are you? Ha Ha HA! Would you like to go into the Dynasty? I'll let you in if you like."  
"That would be lovely, thank you."  
"Oh, such a sweet little girl."  
"What's going on, what did she do to him?"  
"Let's just say it's her surekill, come on, we don't know how long it will last. Let's get out of here."  
"Can you please make the gate now sir?"  
"Yes, HERE IT COMES!"  
A big gate appeared. Kento spit in his hands and pushed open the gate. They walked in and Kento turned around and closed the gate.   
******   
Ryo looks ahead and saw light. He crawled a little faster, and when he got to the hole he looked down and saw Trots talking to a guy with brown hair. He was kinda short, but he figured he was pretty powerful. He couldn't see his eyes. She was saying something and he scooted a little closer so he could hear her.  
"What do you mean he escaped!"  
"Well, there was a hole in the ceiling but we don't know how he got up there." What does she mean, it wasn't a trap, but the horizontal ladder... ANUBIS! I should have known. He started to listen again.  
"Who cares about how he got up there. Just follow him!"  
"Yes, ma'am."  
"Wait, take me there, I want to see the hole." The two walked out of the room.  
Ryo flipped down, holding his side. When he landed he looked around, reached into his pocket and pulled out his orb. Looking at it, he put it back into his pocket. If I put on my armor I'll be easy to detect. If I keep it off I'm unprotected. Okay, I can get out through the west side of this castle; that is unless she redesigned, but it looks the same, so I should be okay. Then I just have to find the others.   
******   
"So how do we find Ryo, Rowen?"  
"Well, Kat, I say we split up."  
"NO, if we split up we might not be able to find one another again. I say we stay together."  
"Sage, we'll cover more ground if we split up."  
"I don't care, if we split up we'll be in more danger. If we stay together we can help each other out. Otherwise we can't!"  
"Okay, Sage, calm down, but what about Ryo, what do we do about him?" asked Cye.  
"NOTHING, you can do nothing for him!"  
"Who says, and who are you?" Rowen asked as he looked at the same guy Ryo had seen talking to Trots earlier, but he didn't know that.  
"My name is Alexs. I guess I have good news for YOU! Your friend Ryo has escaped, but don't worry, we'll find and kill him."  
"I seriously doubt that, shorty!"  
"I'd watch it, Jungle! I'm a lot more powerful than I look!"  
"Really?"  
"Yes." Alexs shot a light of fire out. Kit jumped out of the way; where she was standing there was nothing there.  
She was so stunned that he did so much that she wasn't watching her back. All the sudden she went flying through the air. She landed with a thump. She looked up to see the same one who took Ryo. "DALLER!" she shot. He laughed at her.  
"Happy to see you too, Jungle." She glared at him.  
Kat ran to help up her sister, but as soon as she got close she was blown back. Rowen ran over to help her up.  
"Time to die, little- ahhhhh!" Daller went flying back as something ran into him. Kit jumped up to see who or what pushed Daller back like that. When she got there she was surprised to see nothing at all, no Daller, no nothing.  
"KIT, WATCH YOUR BACK!"   
Kit turned around to see a big blob of fire. She screamed and jumped back from the fire. The fire just glowed, then it moved. Kit jumped as the fire moved. "What's going on, is it alive?" Kit yelled at the top of her lungs. The fire seemed to jump at that.  
"Who, what are you?" The fire moved backwards.   
"Hey, is that fire alive?"  
"Yes, Kento, it is, I'm not sure if it can talk though."  
"Yea, I believe it can," Sage said, "in fact I think... it can even fight." Sage and the fire started laughing.  
"Sage, what's so funny? I see nothing funny in this!"  
"You will show them, FIRE," Sage said kind of awkwardly.  
The fire shook the top of the flame left to right.  
"Why not?"  
It turned toward Kit.  
"Oh, you're afraid she'll beat the crap out of you, aren't you? Can I tell them? If you're on fire she can't touch you." All of a sudden Rowen started cracking up. Sage looked at Rowen. "Rowen, you okay, no?"  
"Yea, but I can't believe mister all and mighty is scared of a girl!"  
"Hey, watch it, Rowen! I'm not any girl! So who is fire, I'm guessing you two know." She looks at Rowen and Sage.  
"Are you sure you want to know who he is?"  
"Oh so it's a he. Huh, interesting. Yes, I really do want to know who HE is."  
Rowen and Sage looked over at the flame that was no doubt laughing his head off. "Okay, it's..."  
"Hold it," Cye and Kento said at the same time.  
"What?"  
"If we tell them now... it would be a lot more fun if we make them wait," Cye said.  
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Kento put in.  
All the Ronins looked at the fire; it looked at them then fell over with laughter.  
"I don't think Mr. Fire over here could take much more."  
"Yeah, I guess you're right."  
"So we tell them? Right."  
"Yeah, I guess, but it would be more fun if Mr. Fire over here could tell them."  
"Why can't he?"  
"Hello, anybody in there?" Sage tapped on Kento's head. Kento pushed his hand away. "He can't talk in fire form."  
"Oh yeah, I forgot."  
"WAIT, you don't mean it's, no, you can't mean, it's... is it, no, it can't be. It better not be! Is it, no."  
"Well, if you'd stop answering your own questions maybe I could answer them," Sage said mockingly.  
"SAGE, is that fire thing RYO?"  
The fire thing, as Kit put it started laughing even harder. The fire started to die and they could see Ryo standing there laughing. He stopped, looked at her, and said yes.   
She lunged at him but Sage stopped her. " What are you doing, let me go, I'm going to kill him!"  
"If you so much as touch him you'll burn your hand off," said Sage as he tried to hold her. She stopped struggling and looked at him; he let her go.   
She picked up a stick and put it on his armor, it caught on fire. She dropped it and stomped on it, then looked at Ryo. "What are you doing? Ryo, take off your armor right now! So I can actually give you a hug."  
"Are you going to hurt me?"  
"Not if you take it off right now." Ryo looked at Kit, then at Rowen. Rowen shrugged his shoulders.  
"Go for it, Ryo,"Sage finally said.  
"Okay, here goes nothing, or everything," Ryo mumbled under his breath.  
"What did you say?" asked Kento in a mocking kind of way. He knew what he said but was trying to get him in trouble with Kit.  
"He said okay, Kento."  
"Thank you, CYE," Kento said, not even looking at Cye.   
"Ryo, are you going to take the armor off, or are you going to stand there looking retarded?" Kat said angrily and teasing.   
Rowen looked at her and shook his head, but then said, "I hate to say it, Ryo, but she's right, you're stalling."  
"I'm stalling, ME stalling? I'm going to... never mind that. Fine, I'll take off the armor."  
"Wait," Kit yelled.  
"What now, are you going to tell me I'm stalling again?!"  
"No, I was wondering, how long does it take your armor to heat up like that?"  
"As long as it takes me to get to a fire."  
"Oh, okay, then don't take the armor off; we don't know where a fire is and it will be a lot easier to get into the castle with a walking fire," Kit said.  
"Gee, thanks, I think," Ryo said.  
"Anytime. Oh, look at the time, it's ten PM, we better get to bed," Kit realized.  
"Yeah, but we can't all sleep in the same place, it would be to easy to spot. I say we split up," Sage said, acting all smart (he is, but that's okay). "Rowen, you go with Kat. Cye, you're with Kento. I'll go with little Ally, and that leaves Ryo for Kit," Sage said with a smirk.  
"Thank you, Sage, I'm going to kill you now," Kit said as she put her arms up to choke him. Ryo looked at her and rolled his eyes. Sage was trying to hold Kit's arms and keep them away from his neck.   
Then Ryo laughed and said, "We'll go northwest, Sage, you go south, Cye, you go east. Rowen go northeast, and everyone stay away from the west; I'll be the closest and I don't even like being that close."  
"Why, Ryo, what's to the west?" Cye asked curiously.  
"I'm not... I... it's bad! That's all you need to know. It's bad, very bad!"  
"Okay, we won't go over there, but do you even know what's over there, Ryo?" Cye asked again.  
"YES, I know what's over there, but... you don't and won't! Trust me, you don't want to know," Ryo yelled at the top of his lungs.  
"Yes, I really do want to know! I want to know right now!" Rowen yelled back.  
"Ha, I don't think you do. I don't think... no, well... no, I don't think so," Ryo said all to calm. "Do you really want to know, Rowen?" Ryo asked.  
"YES, I WANT TO KNOW, I WANT TO KNOW RIGHT NOW!" Rowen yelled, getting angry.  
"Too bad," Ryo said with a smirk in his voice.  
"Then I'll go over there myself and see for myself!" Rowen yelled, again.  
"What! Are you insane, there's a... huh." Ryo covered his mouth and covered up what he was about to say by saying, "Let's get to bed, I'm pooped."  
"There's a what?" Sage asked with a smile on his face.  
"THERE'SABIGSCARYGIRLDOWNTHERE!" Ryo yelled very quickly.  
"Can you say that again? This time a little slower, kay?" Cye said, still trying to decipher what he said first of all, and not having any luck.  
"There's a big scary girl," Ryo said with his head down.  
"Ryo is again scared of a girl. Ryo, you getting weak on us, or just being a chicken?" Rowen said, mocking him  
"You try to go up against that bi..." Ryo looked at Ally, female. "Then we'll see who the chicken is!" Ryo said, getting angry at Rowen. He has no idea what I went through in there, Ryo thought, getting madder at Rowen. "Well, I'm pooped, let's get to bed," Ryo said, mostly so he could get away from the guys. If Kit said anything... I'll, oh, who I'm I kidding, I won't do anything, at least not to her. I think I like her, which is really bad, really really bad!  
"Come on, Ryo, let's go!" Kit said, walking to the northwest.  
"Coming, Kit," Ryo said as he slumped his shoulders and slowly walked after Kit. Rowen and Kat walked together to the northeast. Sage rans after Ally, going south, and Kento and Cye laughed and walked to the east.  
"Rowen, I was wondering, do we have a chance to beat Trots? When Ryo gets scared of an enemy... Rowen, DO WE HAVE A CHANCE?"  
"YES, we have a chance. Look, when we fought Talpa I didn't think we had a chance, but we won cause Ryo was going to sacrifice himself so we could win. Luckily for him, the Jewel of Life saved him," Rowen said, trying to reassure her.  
"Rowen, if Ryo almost died fighting Talpa, and Trots is stronger than Talpa, what does that say for us?" Kat asked, getting really worried.  
"Kat, have faith in Ryo, we can only win if we have faith. When Ryo went into Talpa we all thought, for sure, that if we killed Talpa that we'd kill Ryo, but Ryo made us kill Talpa. We cried the whole time thinking we were killing Ryo and that we would never see him again, but worst of all we thought he would have to go with Talpa. Ryo survived, though, and that's when I learned to have faith in Ryo. They didn't just pull his name out of a hat to be leader, he was chosen for a reason. Mostly cause he know what to do at the right time and place. He makes mistakes but he always pulls through for us. Have faith in him, Kat."  
"Thanks, Rowen, I guess you're right. I don't know Ryo that well, all I know for sure is that first he got beat up and then captured, then he was scared of Trots, he doesn't want anyone to even go near the west cause of her. Are you sure he can handle this one?" Kat asked pleadingly.  
"Yea, Kat, there was a time when Ryos' swords got broken, then White Blaze got hurt really badly. We all thought that we couldn't trust Ryo to do any of the fighting. When I told him to sit out... he didn't take it to well. Later that night White Blaze got Ryo a Soul Sword and died. Ryo got mad and beat Saber Strike, then Black Blaze bonded with White blaze and that's why when White Blaze has on his armor he looks like Black Blaze. The point is, we thought we couldn't trust Ryo and he ended up being the one who killed him. Kat, have faith in him, he'll pull through, he always does," Rowen told her in a really sweet voice.  
"All right, Rowen, I'll trust him a little longer, but if he makes another mistake I want someone else to be leader. I can't... we can't lose!" Kat said kinda loud.  
"If we trade leaders, we'll lose Ryo. If we take Ryo out of being leader he could get mad and run off, he does that a lot, and we might not ever find him, and if we do he could be brainwashed or not be the only one to be living in his body. Plus, none of us know how to be a really good leader like Ryo, and don't say Kit cause she couldn't do it, trust me," Rowen told her in not such a sweet voice.  
"Rowen... okay, I'll trust him for now," Kat said in a low voice.  
"Thanks, Kat, he won't let you or anyone else down, trust me," Rowen said, trying to reassure her.   
******   
"RYO, what are you doing, the tent goes over there!" Kit said as she pointed to an open clearing.  
He looked at where she pointed for a second, shrugged his shoulders and moved the tent over there. "Look, Kit, I think we'll be sleeping near each other like this for a while; we should try to get along," Ryo said, trying to keep calm.  
"Fine, just set up the tent, please," Kit said angrily.  
"Ahh, Kit, what do you think... ahh, nevermind," Ryo said, kinda nervous of something.  
"What, come on, Ryo, what were you going to say?"  
"Kit, doyouwanttogooutsometime?" Ryo said, kinda shaking and blushing.  
"If I got that right, you just asked me out, right? Cause if you did it, we'll have to wait tell after we beat Trots. After that you can ask me again," Kit said with the biggest smile on her face.  
"Okay... are you hungry?" Ryo asked, trying to change the subject.  
"What's there to eat?" Kit asked, still smiling.  
"Ahh... we have s'mores and hot dogs," Ryo said as he looked in their bag of food.  
"Ah well, since I'm not on a diet I'll go with the s'mores," Kit said happy-like.  
"Got it," Ryo said as he pulled out all the stuff to make s'mores and lit the fire, using his power. Then he found two sticks for the marshmallows.  
"Thanks, Ryo," Kit said as Ryo gave her the longer stick to use. She blushed as he gave it to her. He then grabbed the stick, pulled her close and kissed her. They separated, looked at each other and turned around, then turned back around and looked at each other once more. "Well, let's have those s'mores now," Kit said, trying to change the subject.  
"Yea, that's a good thing... ahh, let's eat," Ryo stumbled out. They put the marshmallows on the sticks and stuck it over the fire. When they get tired of s'mores they sat and talked for a while.  
"We better get to bed, Ryo, it's getting late and we have a long day tomorrow," Kit said after about an hour.  
"Yea," said Ryo as he looked at his watch.   
******   
"No, KENTO, THAT GOES-" (crash) The tent fell down. Cye covered his eyes and shook his head. "Kento, go sit down, I'll put the tent up, okay?" Cye said as he pushed Kento out of the way.  
"Hey, you sure, Cye old buddy?" Kento asked.  
"Positive, just don't move, kay?" Cye said, putting his hand up to stop him from moving.  
"Okay, Cye, if you need any help I'll be happy to help," Kento said with his mouth totally full with food. Cye could barely understand him.  
"Yeah, just sit there and don't move," Cye said, trying to stay calm. He couldn't believe he was about to lose his temper; he never lost his temper.   
*****   
"ALLY! STOP, PLEASE STOP! I'm tired, please, I want to go to bed. Ally," Sage pleaded.  
"All right, Sage, cause no one needs their beauty sleep more than you and Kento. Ha HA HA!" Ally said this as she ran around Sage who was desperately trying to catch her. "Oh come on, Sage, you're faster than this. You can catch me, TRY!"  
"ALLY, BED, NOW!" Sage yelled.  
"Okay, you don't have to yell, you know, jeez," Ally complained as she went into the tent.  
"Thank you," Sage mumbled as he went in after her and shut the tent.   
******   
"I want him back NOW! I got him and you let him go," Trots yelled at Alexs and Daller.  
"We're sorry, Master, please forgive us," they both said at the same time.  
"And bring me that little girl, that power of hers will come in handy, BUT mostly get me Wildfire. I need to have Wildfire here. He is the only one who can destroy us, you got that!"  
"Yes, ma'am," they both said.  
"Good, do what you wish with the others, I don't care." 


	6. Chapter 6 part 1

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Six   
"Ryo, Kat, Kit, Rowen, where are you?" Sage said as he looked around.  
"Sage, we're over here," Ryo yelled toward where Sage was standing.  
"What took you guys so long, we've been waiting for three hours!" Ally demanded.  
"Ally, we've been here for five minutes," Cye told her. Ally gave him a dirty look and she looked kinda mean for being only four and a half. Cye laughed.  
"You guys, we need to start moving," Ryo commented as he started to walk. Rowen and Kat took the back so they could talk.  
"Rowen, I still think someone else should be leader!" Kat told him.  
"You said you'd give him a chance. Kat... he'll pull through! That's the fifth time I said that, isn't it?" Rowen said as he poked her in the side.  
"Stop!" Kat said as he tried to poke her again. "I'll give him a chance. Rowen, this probably is the wrong time to say this, but... I think I love you," Kat said. Rowen stopped walking, and she stopped. They looked at each other for a while, and they started to get closer, but all of a sudden they heard a nice little voice.  
"Hurry up, you two, we don't have all day! We need to keep moving, we can't stop to gaze into each other's eyes!" Ryo told them coldly. Everyone started cracking up.  
"Go Rowen, ha ha, did you guys have some fun last night? Ha HA," Kento yelled back, laughing his head off.  
"Yea, man, maybe we shouldn't put you guys together anymore, HA HAHAHA," Sage joined in.  
Before anyone could say any more, Rowen yelled, "SHUT UP NOW!"  
Ryo rolled his eyes and started walking again. "Hey, Ryo, what's your problem!" Kat yelled at him.  
"Do you want to know my problem, Kat? I'll tell you my problem. When I was four years old I fell down the stairs at the same time my mother died because of my little sister that was still in her stomach. She couldn't call to get help because my head was bleeding and she was too worried about me. Later when I was about six years old my dad took me to his work, taking pictures of animals. He told me to stay in the jeep were it was safe. After about an hour I heard a scream, I turned around to see a lion killing my father, and do you know what the last thing he said was? 'Run, Ryo, get away from here!' I was too scared to move so I couldn't even do that.  
"When the lion was finished with my father he turned to me, I would have been eaten too, but," he looked at White Blaze, "my tiger saved me. It was the first time I met White Blaze, and right then and there I promised I would never lose anyone ever again. And I haven't either, but now I have some Dynasty freak that's in love with me! Which makes it twice as hard to fight this Dynasty freak, 'cause she comes when I'm all alone and not expecting it. Not to mention I have to lead all of you! That is my problem!" Ryo told her.  
Kat and Kit looked at the ground, they thought losing their parents was bad, but he had to watch his parents die, and never got to see his little sister. Then Ally broke the silence. "Does that mean his parents aren't coming back either?" Ally asked.  
"Yeah, sweetie, his parents aren't coming back either." Rowen looked at her, then at Ryo; he knew that it was really hard to tell or even talk about his parents.  
Ryo turned around so his back is facing the others, took a deep breath, and said, "We need to keep moving." His voice cracked when he talked. He was about to cry, it was so hard to talk about his parents. He blamed himself even though there was nothing he could have done.  
"I'm sorry, Ryo," Kit said and put a hand on his shoulder.   
"It looks too that Rowen and I aren't the only ones who are making a relationship," Kat said while smiling. Kit gave her a dirty look. Kat stuck out her tongue.  
"Look, Ryo? Ryo? Okay, where'd he go?" Kit asked when she turned around.  
Rowen started to rub his temples. He went to fight Trots alone, isn't that great? Rowen turned around. "Why does he do this to us?"  
"I don't know, maybe he likes it when we worry about him!" Cye added in.  
"Yea, and if Trots finds him... I don't think he'll escape this time! That's putting it in a good way. I can't believe she's in love with HIM! It's weird I get the normal, cute, girls. Rowen gets the different girls." Kat gave him a suppressed but dirty look. "Cye gets the shy girls. Kento gets the... hungry girls, but Ryo doesn't usually get the girls, and now he has two girls that are after him, one I think he likes back, the other I think he wants to destroy."  
Kit smiled. "You better not be talking about me when you said destroy. Wait a minute, how do we find Ryo?"  
"White Blaze will track him down," Kento added in.  
"No need, I'm right here," Ryo said. They whirled around to see him leaning on a tree. "I found a safe way to get in to the castle, or as safe as it'll get."  
"You found a safe way in, in five minutes? Come on, Ryo, that's like impossible," Kento said meanly.  
"SO I GET LUCKY, BIG DEAL!" Ryo yelled really loud.  
"Yo, Ryo, calm down. It wasn't like he asked you kill yourself or something. What's wrong with you? You've never been this mean before," Rowen asked, trying to be really calm. He didn't want Ryo to blow up again. What's wrong, something is really wrong that he ain't telling us about. Ryo is to nervous; how strong is this Trots? No, maybe he's just tense from talking about his parents. I have to have faith in him. His voice sounds weird, hope he's not getting sick, wrong place for that! Rowen thought to himself.  
All of a sudden White Blaze came trotting up. He took one look at Ryo and started to growl and roar. The tiger got in his fighting position and kept growling at Ryo.  
"What - what's wrong with White Blaze? Why is he growling at Ryo, I thought you said they never hurt each other, that they're bonded?" Kat asked, confused.  
Everyone but Kit, Kat, and Ally got in their fighting position. Rowen said in an angry voice, "That's not Ryo! Who are you?" Rowen demanded.  
"Why, I'm your leader, Ryo of the Wildfire," someone said. It was definitely not Ryo's voice, but it was high pitched and it echoed.  
"WHO ARE YOU!" Kento yelled, and I mean he really yelled.  
"His name is Ryan, from what I remember from the books he is very strong, and very fast too. Not as fast as Lady Kayura, though he can do illusions like Dais. Probably a really good enemy. It would be better if he was an ally, but that's okay," Cye said while everyone else stands there with their mouths open.  
"Very good, Torrent." Ryo disappeared, and in his place was a kinda tall man with shoulder length hair that was blonde. His eyes were pure black. He had an armor on; it was like Daller and Alexs, pure black with a little gray.  
"Where's Ryo?" Sage demanded.  
"I don't know where your wimpy little leader Wildfire is. Probably got scared and ran home to his mommy," Ryan said with an evil smile.  
"He's not wimpy!" Kit defended him.  
"Then why does he always run away or get beaten up? Shut up, let's do this," Ryan told them.  
"Let's armor up! Armor of the Torrent!"  
"Armor of the Hard Rock!"  
"Armor of the Halo!"  
"Armor of the Strata!"  
"Armor of the Forest!"  
"Armor of the Jungle!"  
"Armor of the Flower! Dao Chi!"  
Sage took out his sword and started to run toward Ryan. He ran right through him. He turned around to see him ten feet away from where he was five seconds ago. "Man, he is fast," Sage said, not believing he could move that fast.  
"I got him! Iron Rock Crusher!" Kento yelled. Ryan disappeared and came back when the rocks stop flying. "Damn, he's fast. How are we are supposed to beat him if he disappears and comes back every time we attack?" Kento asked, not taking his eyes off of Ryan.  
"Now you shall see my power." He pulled out a sword and lunged at Rowen. Rowen flipped back just in time. "Very good, Strata. Now dodge this Wind Steam." This air like stuff cames out of his sword. It blew not only Rowen but everyone else about ten feet backwards. Ryan stood there laughing.  
Sage looked around; everyone was knocked out. His body hurt all over. There was no way he could fight like this. He put his head down on the ground again.  
When he woke up it was dark out. There was a fire going and he was in a sleeping bag, along with everyone else. Where am I, were we captured? No, they wouldn't be so nice to us. Or else it's a trick or I'm dreaming. No, I think this is a real place and I don't sense any evil. What's going on!  
All the sudden he heard White Blaze roar. Then he heard Ryo. "Give it up, Ryan, you can't beat me!" Ryo shouted. Then he heard Ryan's voice. Ryo's was strong but Ryan's was weak. Then he started to listen again; Ryan was telling Ryo something.  
"I can beat you easily, I'm just playing right now!" Ryan said.  
"Bullshit, you're trembling. Face it, I'm stronger than you. I mean, I was able to start a fire and get ALL of my friends in a comfy spot while you struggled to get up!" Ryo said calmly back to him. "You're weak! How my friends fell so easily I don't know, but I don't fall so easily!" Ryo yelled at him. "FLARE UP NOW!" The fire headed straight at Ryan. He screamed and disappeared.  
A voice was then echoing all around Ryo. "I'll be back, consider yourself lucky I let you off this time!" It was Ryan's voice.  
"Lucky! CHICKEN!" Ryo turned around to see Sage staring at him. "Morning, have a nice sleep?"  
"Lovely. How did you beat him? He's so fast!" Sage asked.  
"It's just a trick, Sage, he's not that fast! He can do ILLUSION, remember?"  
"Oh, right, sorry. Well, you kicked butt! When did you arrive?"  
"I heard Kat scream, maybe it was Kit. I don't know. I came then, I wasn't that far away, but far enough that I got there too late, you were all out cold."  
"Huh, where are we, Rowen, where's Rowen?" Kat started yelling.  
"Calm down, he's over there. Man, Kat, a little high strung!"  
"Shut up, Ryo, you weren't there, you don't know happened, you ran away. Ryan was right, you are just a wimp," Kat said meanly.  
"Kat, he..."  
"Stop, it's okay, Sage, let her believe what she wants to believe," Ryo told Sage. "Kat, what would you like me to do?"  
"Resign, let someone else be leader! They can't be any worse than you!" Kat told him.  
"NO, not happening, you don't know Ryo..."  
"SAGE, STOP! Kat, if I let someone else be leader, then what about Inferno?" Ryo asked.  
"Give it to someone else!" Kat yelled.  
"Give it to someone else, give it to someone else?" Ryo looked surprised.  
"Did I stutter? Yes, give it to someone else!" Kat told him.  
"Kat, the only way I could give the armor away is if they had a power like Talpa had, or I died and gave it to them."  
"SO DIE!" Kat yelled.  
"Huh, what's with all the yelling, who is yelling? I'm captured? Where's Ryan?" Rowen was totally confused.  
"We're fine, Rowen, glad to see you're okay," Sage told him.   
Rowen sat up and looked around. "How did we escape from being captured?" Rowen asked.  
"Oh, Ryo..."  
"It's okay, Sage, you can tell them the truth." Ryo turned to look at everyone else. "The truth is, even though Sage was in a lot of pain he stayed awake just so you wouldn't be captured. When I got there I got a cheap shot on him and scared him off," Ryo said.  
Sage looked at him weirdly. What the hell is he talking about, I passed out like everyone else. I didn't scare anyone off! He's up to something, but the question is what? Sage thought to himself. Should I tell the others? No, Ryo would just say I was the one who saved the day, and I have a feeling that this time and this time alone Kat will believe him and not me! Sage rolled his eyes just thinking about it.  
"Way to go, Sage! I think you should be the leader!" Kat said, smiling mostly cause it wasn't Ryo who saved them.  
"No, that's not possible, I was awake right after we hit the rocks, I saw you pass out! I saw Ryo come out of the shadows and look at us, then I passed out! But you didn't do anything!" Rowen blurted out.  
Ryo put his hand over his eyes and shook his head, then said, "I thought you might have been awake, I was hoping I was wrong, but NO, I had to be right!" He started laughing under his breath. "We're dead, or will be. Nothing I can do, not how I'm acting, anyway. I'm just going to get in your way. I can't handle Trots, she's too much for me. I was hoping that if I got her to believe I was weak she wouldn't like me." He looked at Kit who was still asleep. "The only downfall would be... I would probably lose Kit's pride in me too. And everyone else who believed in me. Kat, you were pushing me up when you were mean to me. I wouldn't let you down, 'cause I already let you down by getting captured."  
Kat looked a the ground. So he really isn't a ditz, he is a good leader, Kat thought to herself, then it hit her. "NO, you can't leave! Then you would be letting me down. Before I was just expecting too much. Ever since we got to the Dynasty, all Rowen said when I have doubts about you was to have faith in you. And now you're going to walk out on us?" Kat asked with a puzzled look on her face.  
"Kat, I can't beat her! She doesn't want to kill me, she wants to have FUN with me, if you know what I mean! And I ain't talking about going to the park fun, either. I have a feeling that if I stay here, you guys will all die and I'll be stuck in a room with Trots, tied up. If you know what I mean," Ryo explained to her.  
"Oh, and what's going to happen if you run away? I tell you we'll die cause we don't have enough power to defeat her. Then she goes after you and you still get captured. Or you stay and fight, and believe in yourself, and we defeat her using Inferno. We can do this, Ryo, if you believe in yourself, and only if you believe in yourself. Otherwise we're history. Our fate rests in your hands, Ryo, what'll it be?" Kat asked him.  
"I'm hungry." They all - all that were awake - jerked around to see Kento rubbing his head. "What do we have to eat, what are we talking about?" Kento asked, starting to crawl over to the food bag.  
"Leave the food alone, Kento," Rowen said, not taking his eyes off of Ryo.  
"Umm, well, everyone's up now except Kit and Cye. Man, you guys heal fast," Ryo said, trying to change the subject.  
"You didn't answer the question, Ryo," Sage said, also watching Ryo.  
"What question?" Kento asked, trying to sneak over to the food.  
"KENTO, LEAVE THE FOOD ALONE!" Kat yelled.  
"Huh, who's yelling?" Ryo slowly turned around to see Cye sitting up.  
"We're wandering from the subject here; answer the question, Ryo, NOW!" Rowen told him.  
Ryo licked his lips nervously. "Okay, okay, umm, all right, just get off my back, I'll fight!"  
"And believe in yourself?" Kit said  
"Huh?" they all said at the same time.  
Ryo looked at her. "When did you wake up?" Ryo asked her.  
"I've been awake, I was awake even before Sage was, I just kept quiet," Kit told him.  
"Yeah, and believe in myself," Ryo said, smiling. I just hope I can pull this off! She's so strong! Ryo thought to himself.  
"Good! Now, let's eat!" Kat told everyone.  
Kento hollered, "Yes!"   
*****   
"Daller, what's the plan?" Alexs asks.  
"I say we get Wildfire first, so Trots will get off of our backs," Ryan said, cleaning his wounds. "And while we are at it we can beat him up!" Ryan made his hand into a fist and laughed. "He'll pay for what he did to me, he'll pay."  
"Oh, shut up, Ryan, revenge will get you nowhere. Remember what happened to Kally, poor girl." They all put their heads down. "But you're right, we do need to get Wildfire first, and I know the perfect way to do it. Ryan, I'll need you to do some illusions," Daller told them.   
"Why, you saw that my illusions didn't fool him at all," Ryan said.  
"Not your fast illusion, but maybe if we can get him away from everyone else we can make him think his beloved Jungle has been captured, making him fall right into our trap. HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha!"  
The three Warlords walked out of the room. Little did they know they were being watched by their MASTER Trots. She watched them walk out of the room they were in. Then she thought to herself, Stupid fools, they can't trick Wildfire to come here, 'cause he still won't want to stay. I want him to be my king! Looks like I'm going to have to deal with this myself, those bumbling tumbling fools can't do anything. I better call them back before they try to do something and ruin everything! Trots thought, then called for the warlords and walked out of the room.   
***** 


	7. Chapter 6 part 2

Part 2 Chapter 6  
  
"GUYS, we need to talk if we're going to beat Trots!" Ryo called to the others.  
"Guys and girls, thank you!" Kit teased.  
"Yeah, yeah, I know! Anyway, any ideas on how to beat her?" Ryo asked.  
"I might," Kat said as she took a seat in Rowen's lap. "Okay, they've made it pretty obvious they want Ryo and not anyone else. So we can use that to trick on them. I'm sure they're going to try to use my sister Kit here to trick Ryo," Kat told them.  
"Well, duh, everyone knows that!" Kento said as he got up. He started to walk to the food.  
"Kento, we just ate. If you so much as take one more step towards that food, I'll beat you down and give you a wet willy too," Cye told Kento.  
Kento put his head down and started to turn around, but then turned back towards the food and made a jump for it. Cye was about to jump at Kento but didn't have the chance, cause Kento tripped over on a rock and fall flat on his butt. Everyone started cracking up. Cye fell back down and started rolling with laughter.  
"It's not funny," Kento whined.  
"Kento, you just gave me an idea!" Ryo exclaimed. Then he got up and ran into the trees. The others just stood or sat there.  
"Where'd he go?" Cye asked, wiping the tears off his face from laughing so hard.  
"I have no idea, he said he had an idea." Rowen looked at the way he ran. "Should we go after him?"  
"No, I think for once Ryo has every thing under control," Kat told them. "And plus, we should have faith in Ryo." Rowen smiled at Kat.  
"Now where have I heard that before?" Rowen said, giving her an evil smile.  
"Shut up!" They all turned to see Alexs, Ryan and Daller standing there.  
"What do you want?" Kat asked.  
"I think they came here to fight, Kat," Ally said.  
"Thank you, Ally," Kat said and patted her on the head.  
"Well, to tell you the truth, we only want to fight on one condition," Daller told them.  
"What! We can beat your butt whether you like it or not," Sage said, shaking his fist.  
"No, you can't, we can just vanish, you'll never know where we went, and we can come make trouble and go when you come. Trust me, we can do a lot to you," Ryan told them.  
"What are the conditions!" Kento asked, just wanting to start fighting.  
"Well, if you win we'll kill ourselves so you never have to deal with us again," Daller said, crossing his arms.  
"And if you win?" Kat said, glaring at them.  
"If we win we get Ryo of the Wildfire!" Alexs said, smiling.  
"NO WAY! We aren't going to let you have Ryo!" Kit said.  
"Well, you'd be coming out better, if you win you lose three enemies, if we win we only lose one enemy," Daller told them.  
"NO! WE DON'T ONLY LOSE ONE OF OUR BEST FRIENDS BUT THE INFERNO and THE WILDFIRE!" Kento shouted. Then getting pretty mad he shouted, "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU EVEN ASKED US THAT, LIKE WE WOULD EVEN GIVE A CHANCE OF LOSING RYO. WITHOUT HIM WE'RE WORTHLESS!" Kento then yelled "Armor of the Hardrock!" Then he took out his bo and started slashing at Daller. Daller dodged every one of his shots. "I'll fight you whether you like it or not!"  
Finally Kento hit Daller square in the stomach. Daller went flying backwards and hit a tree. Rowen jumped into the air and fired arrows at Alexs. Alexs tried to dodge them, but one hit him in the shoulder blade. He screamed out in pain then pulled the arrow out of his shoulder.   
Sage and Cye both took on Ryan. Ryan pulled out his nunchucks and twirled them around, showing off. Sage and Cye looked at each other and nodded their heads and jumped at Ryan. Ryan jumped back and laughed. "Is that all you have, Ronins?" Alexs asked mockingly.  
"NO, STOP, YOU'RE FIGHTING FOR THE WRONG SIDE!" came a voice that was all too familar.  
"KAYURA!" the Ronins all yelled at the same time.  
"What are you doing here?" Sage asked as the other warlords walked up and stood behind Kayura.  
"Your leader invited us. He said that you might need our help," Cale explained.  
"Who are these people?" asked Kat.  
"We are here to help," Kayura said nicely. The Ronins gave Kayura and the warlords a dirty look. They may have changed from bad to good but the Ronins still didn't like that they had to work with them!  
"NO, we can handle this ourselves. Go home!" Kento yelled.  
"Please calm down, Hardrock, we only want to help," Dais exclaimed.  
"I hope this wasn't his idea!" Sage said and crossed his arms.  
"Shut it! We're here to fight, not to listen to your bickering!" yelled Daller. Alexs didn't even give them a warning, he just jumped at Kayura, expecting her to be an easy kill. But she's anything but that! Kayura easily got him down.  
"I thought you'd be at least as good as Wildfire!" Kayura said meanly.  
"I'M TEN TIMES AS GOOD AS WILDFIRE!!" Alexs yelled back as he rolled out of the way.  
Daller fought Sage, while Ryan took care of Kento and Rowen. Kento slashed his bo at Ryan, and Ryan dodged it just in time to get an arrow in the shoulder.   
He glared at Rowen, who is still in the firing-arrow stance. "You'll pay for that, blue boy!" Ryan yelled. He started to run towards Rowen, but Kento intercepted him and hit him with his bo. He hit him like a baseball and Ryan went flying backwards and hit a tree.  
"HA ha, did that hurt? There's more where that came from! HA HA!" Kento bellowed.  
Sage did a jump kick and hit Daller in the face. Daller flew backwards, and when he started to get up Cye hit him with his trident, sending him farther back. Daller moaned in pain as he tried to get up.  
Alexs jumped up into a tree to get his breath. He looks around and saw the Warlords JUST standing there, watching! He looked at Ryan who was beaten badly by Hardrock and Strata. He then looked at Daller who was also beaten badly, but by Halo and Torrent. And he wasn't winning against this girl either!  
"Oh, Alexs, where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Kayura looked up into the trees. "Are you up there, Alexs, is that you?" Kayura jumped up to the tree that Alexs was in. Alexs stepped backwards, scared. "Hi there, what are you doing up here? I mean, I'm just a GIRL!" Kayura laughed.  
Alexs jumped into the air and shouted, "We're outta here!" He teleported away. The other two (Daller and Ryan) looked up, jumped up and teleported away. Then they heard a voice. "You may have won this one, but the war has only begun!" The voice was Alex's.  
"Not bad, Ronins," Kayura stated while she put her Starlight Swords back into their slots.  
"What happened to the Ancient thing, Kayura?" Sage asked.  
"I'm more powerful without it; the Ancient's Staff is good to find people, but it's not as powerful as the Starlight Swords."  
"So, you're too powerful as it is!" Cye pointed out. They all laughed.  
"Hey, how do we know that you're on our side?" Kento said as he pointed to the Warlords. "THEY DIDN'T HELP!"  
"But I did, and they're on my team. We'd like to join your team, if you'd let us. Ryo wants as to ask you, he says it's up to you. So can we join your team?" Kayura asked.  
The Ronins got in a little huddle. Five minutes later they turned around and Sage said with a simple answer, "Sure."  
"Here little snaky, snaky, come here." They all turned around to see Sekmet petting a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake then crawled up his arm and around his neck, then it just hung there while Sekmet petted it. Dais looked puzzled, then he smiled very widely. He ran past Sekmet and over to a tree, and he reached his hand up and just held it there.  
The Ronins looked at each other then shrugged their shoulders. Then Kayura and Kale looked at each other and said at the same time, "Oh NO!" Then they put their heads in their hands and shook their heads.  
"What, what, what is he doing!" Kento asked, or more yelled.  
"He's getting a spider," Kale said still shaking his head.  
"A spider?" Cye asked.  
"Hey, who are these people?" Kat asked as she ran up with her sisters close behind her.  
"Where have you been?" Rowen asked, giving Kat a nudge on the shoulder.  
"We were fighting the big armed men?" Ally said, thinking he really wanted to know (she's only five and a half).  
"Hi, I'm Kayura, the one with the snake is Sekmet, the one that looks like he's petting his hand is Dais."  
"What is he doing?" Kit asked coldly.  
"Petting a spider."  
"A SPIDER!" Ally jumped into Kat's arms.  
"And I'm Kale, me and Kayura are the only normal ones."  
"Where's Ryo?" Kit asked.  
"Kit, are you worried about him?" Sage asked with an evil smile smeared across his face. All he got for an answer was an evil glare, and let me tell you, if looks could kill Sage would be dead and in the ground by now!  
All the sudden they heard a deathly scream. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!" Cye yelled.  
"Come on!" Kat ran in the direction the scream came from. They all followed her. When they got there they saw Dynasty soldiers all around.  
"Come on, someone's here that needs our help! Let's move," Sage yelled.   
They all started fighting. "Hey, look, there's a girl!"  
"Here's another!" Cye yelled. Cye started to run toward the girl, but then some other girl jumped in front, swinging a stick at him while throwing rocks at him. "Hey, stop! STOP!" He just jumped up and grabbed the stick from her hand. She jumped back, puzzled; she wasn't expecting him to do that. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to help," Cye stated.  
"CYE, WATCH YOUR BACK!!" Kento got there just in time to stop the soldier from stabbing Cye in the back.  
"Oh, thanks Kento."  
"Hey, I can't let my best bud get beat by a couple of puny soldiers." Kento slapped him on the back.   
Sage ran up with a girl in his arms. "What's going on! What are you people doing here?" Sage asked.  
"This guy brought as here, he said we would understand later, then he just left us. Then the soldiers came. Brittney and Tina freaked out; I tried to protect them, but Britt tried to run away. I couldn't leave Tina, so I just hoped Britt got away. Now, who are you?!" the girl explained.  
"Your name?" Kento asked.  
"Chi Chi."  
"Chi Chi? Hey, that's that one babe's name, the one on DBZ, the really mean one, you know?"  
"Only you and Ryo watch those cartoons," Cye said, shaking his head.  
"WHO ARE YOU!" asked the girl sitting on the ground. They were guessing that was Tina, cause she was with Chi Chi.  
"We're the Ronin Warriors. Now do you know who it was that brought you here? They brought you here for a reason."  
"They? There was only one," Tina said.  
"He seemed really nice," came a tiny voice from Sage's arms. "I don't think he wanted us to get hurt, I think it was a mistake. I think he went away so we wouldn't get hurt, but it was too late," the girl said.  
She's so quiet I can barely hear her, and I'm holding her! She must be shy, Sage thought.  
"You're right, I am," Brittney said.  
WHAT, I - I - I THOUGHT THAT!! Sage thought. The girl laughed a little.  
"Britt can read minds; we tell her to stay out of other people's heads, but she does it anyway," Chi Chi explained. "Britt and I are eighteen, but Tina is seventeen."  
"We're all eighteen too, except for Cye who is seventeen and Ally who is five," Sage told her.  
"Five and A HALF!!" Ally corrected.  
"Yeah, sorry, five and a half."  
"I'll be six in May. May 5, that's my birthday," Ally said proudly.  
"What do you know about the man that brought you here?" Cye asked.  
"He was wearing what you're wearing, that's why I attacked you," Chi Chi explained.  
"But his was red and white," Britt said.  
"Did she say red and white? I must have heard wrong, I mean, she's so quiet," Kit asked.  
"She said red and white. Are you sure it looked like ours?" Rowen said; his face was white.  
"Yes, why?" Tina asked.  
"Our leader, he wears red and white," Sage explained. "Did he have black hair. 'Bout shoulder-length?"  
"Yes, I think you need a new leader!" Chi Chi explained.  
"Nah, I think they have a great leader. Smart, good-looking, has a great sense of humor." They all turned to see Ryo standing there, leaning on a tree.  
"You!" Chi Chi ran at him. Ryo stepped to one side, making her fall on her face. Ryo looked at her like she was crazy and he shrugged his shoulders.  
"RYO, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! WHY DID YOU BRING THEM HERE?" Kento yelled.  
"Kento, calm down," Ryo said very calmly, too calm. "I knew you'd come. And plus, I want to beat Trots! I want to beat the snot outta her, and I can with their help," Ryo smiled.  
"Their help? They're just normal people!" Rowen yelled.  
"So were we before we got our armors," Ryo said.  
"Are you saying they have armors?" Kat asked.  
"No, no," Ryo said.  
"Then how can they help?"  
"They're the ones!" Ryo said with a smile.  
"The ones for what?" Cye asked.  
"The ones in the scrolls, the ones about the three sisters, one can read minds, one can move things, but the third was smudged out. What else can you do?" Ryo asked.  
"Tina can talk to wildlife and sealife. Oh, we're not sisters, Tina and I are cousins and Britt is just a friend."  
Kento looked at Chi Chi. She had shoulder-length hair, dark brown. She had blue green eyes and small waist, but was not petite, she definitely worked out. She wasn't afraid to tell her opinion, that was for sure. Kento thought she was rather cute.   
Tina had reddish-brownish hair. She looked petite, very petite. She had green eyes. Britt, who was still in Sage's arms, had blond hair and straight bangs. She was also petite but not as much as Tina.  
"So, Ryo, how did you find them?" Kit asked.  
"Well, it was really quite simple, all I had to do was multiply our ages which is 345673233432 together..."  
"Ryo, I think you're a little off on that one!" Sage explained.  
"No, I'm not, our first birth was in the 1200s. So, anyway, then you divide 34, 'cause that's Olas' first law. (guy in an ancient scroll) Then you -102850, divide it by 2000, multiply E=mc2 which equals 84, divide that by four which is 21, then you add five for the Ronins, subtract four for the Warlords and add three for the nature girls, which is 25. Then you go to the adress 12500. It said in the scrolls to put a one in front of it, and two zeros in back. I found them."  
"NATURE GIRLS! What kind of a name is that?" Kit yelled.  
"Ha ha," Ryo did a nervous laugh, "the one the scrolls gave you, he he."  
"You used a calculator, right?" Sage asked. He flunked math, how did he figure this out? Even with a calculator!  
"No, I didn't. It was strange... but I knew how to do everything like I had done it before!" Ryo said like he was in a daze.  
"How did you get back to the mortal world?" Kit asked.  
"You just have to meadite in a place that's not eivil for a while and a door appears," Ryo explained.  
"Is that how you got back in, too?" Cye asked.  
"Yeah. Hey, do you want to get this show on the road? We have to train them! Otherwise they won't survive the next battle."  
"Don't you think that will take a little bit of time? Time that we don't have!" Kit asked.   
"No, they'll learn fast, trust me!" 


	8. Chapter 7 part 1

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Seven   
Ryo was right. The three girls trained very fast, and in no time they were able to defend themselves.   
"We have to keep moving. We can't stand around here very much longer," Rowen says.  
Kit speaks up, "I say we have the girls in one camp and the guys in another camp, so we can have some girl chat."  
"Fine, but I want us to go at least five miles away from here first," Ryo tells them.  
"Okay, Ryo. We all go five miles north, then we'll split up," says Chi Chi.  
So they start to walk, and when they get five miles away they split up. Boys go one way; girls go the other.   
*****   
"Hey, Ryo! This place looks good. Help me set up the tents," Sage yells.  
As soon as they get there Cye takes out his cooking utensils and begins cooking. As Ryo and Sage put up the tents Rowen desperately tries to keep Kento away from the food. When everything is settled, Cye serves the food. Kento of course gobbles it down before anyone else has even started.  
"Can I have seconds?" Kento whines.  
"Not now, Kento! We need to save our food," Rowen tells him.  
Ryo all of a sudden brings up the subject of girls. "So, who does everyone like?" Everyone looks at Ryo oddly due to the sudden change of subject.  
Kento, of course, with a mouth full of food, yells, "Chi Chi!"  
Cye says quietly, "Tina," and blushes soon afterwards.  
"Everyone knows who I like!" Rowen blurts out.  
Moments pass, then Ryo says, "Who do you like, Sage?"  
"I'll tell mine after you tell yours," Sage snaps.  
"Well, isn't it obvious!" Rowen blurts out.  
"Is it?" Sage asks, giving Ryo a suspicious look.  
"Well, do you like her or not?" Kento yells.  
"Well... I think she's cute, but if you mean like her like her... no," Ryo replies. Everyone was speechless   
*****   
"Hey, is dinner ready?" Tina asked Brittany.  
"Keep your shoes on!" Brittany snaps back, then thinks, She asked that just five minutes ago... if she asks again... I'll kill her! And she better not say what she's thinking or she's going to get another thing coming.  
When Brittany finally finishes dinner, Tina runs for a good spot. When eating, Kit says, "Man! You cook good!"   
"Uhh... thanks," Britt replies.  
"So, what do you guys think of... the guys?" Chi Chi asks with a wicked smile.  
"I like Cye... he's SO cute!" Tina muffles with a full mouth.  
"Well, you should! He's the only one your age!" Chi Chi says while pointing a fork at her. "Well, anyway... I like Kento. And he's so cute when he tries to flirt!"  
Brittany quietly says, "I think Sage is cute..." and blushes big time.  
"Well, everyone knows who I like!" Kat yells. "He's my little boy blue."  
"What about you, Kit? Don't you like Ryo?" asks Chi Chi.  
"Well... he is cute... and very sweet, but I don't think it would work," Kit says with a frown.  
"How do you know if you don't try?" Kat asks.  
Kit, trying to just get off the subject asks, "Where's Ally?"  
"She and White Blaze went up to the hill, to play," replies Kat.  
Then they hear a scream.   
*****   
The guys are still eating when Ryo drops his fork and looks up. "Do you guys feel that?" he asks.  
"Yeah... what is it?" asks Rowen while looking around.  
"What do you think it is... it's Trots!" Kento says while still stuffing his face.  
"If we're here... and nothing's happening here... that must mean she's not after us," Rowen says while looking backwards.  
Kento, Sage, Ryo, and Cye all say at once, "THE GIRLS!"   
Rowen has a 'duh' look on his face as he rolls his eyes. "Let's go," Rowen says.  
They all get up to run towards the girls when Ryo stops and looks the other direction. "What is it, Ryo?" Cye asks.  
"White Blaze is in trouble!" Ryo tells him.  
"Well, don't you wanna warn the girls?" asks Kento.  
"I have to help White Blaze. You go and warn the girls," Ryo tells them.  
"Are you sure, Ryo? It's dangerous," Sage asks, concerned.  
"It always is," Ryo points out.  
"I don't like it, Ryo! I say we stick together..." Cye protests.  
"Ryo, I want you to stay with us, or at least have one of us come with you," Rowen tells him.  
"NO! The girls might need all of you. I'll be fine... help the girls," Ryo says. And without another word he runs off.   
Sage almost runs after him, when Rowen grabs his arm and says, "Just let him go."   
*****   
Ryo ran until he saw a big black thing. He had no idea what it was, but he knew White Blaze was in there. Ryo goes near the hole, but stops right in front of it. He then slowly steps into it. Next thing he knows, he's surrounded by darkness. It reminds him of fighting Cale, 'The Warlord of Darkness'. He walks slowly, watching where he steps (if he could see). He calls out White Blaze's name many times, but there was no answer.   
He heard a whimpering. He wasn't sure, but he could swear it was Ally. He slowly walks towards the whimpering, to find White Blaze and Ally hiding under him. He picks up Ally, puts her on White Blaze, and gets on holding Ally as White Blaze starts to run.   
*****   
When the guys find the girls, they are standing in front of a big black thing. "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?!" Sage yells.  
"I don't know... but Ally is in there," says Kat.  
"So is White Blaze," Chi Chi adds.  
"WHITE BLAZE!!" all the guys shout at the same time.  
"Yeah... is there a big problem with that?" Tina asks.  
"RYO WENT AFTER WHITE BLAZE!" Kento loudly explains.  
"Are you telling me you let Ryo go off alone?!" Kit asks, not believing it.  
"W-w-well he, umm... umm... and then he... umm... yeah..." Kento stumbles.  
"He just left!" Rowen cuts in. After all... Kento wasn't doing very well.  
"And you didn't go after him?!" Kat asks.  
"I tried to, but he stopped me!" Sage says, pointing at Rowen.  
"I had to... he, umm... uhh... he needed to be alone..." Rowen stumbles out.  
"Alone to die?!" Kit yells.  
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down. Ryo can take care of himself," Cye tells them.   
*****   
"Master Trots..." Daller says quietly.  
"Yes,? What is it?" Trots asks.  
"Wildfire, Flower, and White Blaze are all stuck in the black hole," Daller reports.  
"Good..." Trots' smile gets wider as she starts to laugh.   
*****   
Ryo was stuck in that black hole for what seemed like days. Of course, he had no way of keeping time, and no way of seeing either. White Blaze was very tired by now. He was now at a slow walk. Ryo had to get off and walk by White Blaze once in a while. Ryo slept as little as possible. Ally slept quite often.   
*****   
A girl with elf ears examined this black thing. She then, getting very angry at it cause she had waited three days for it to go away, raises up her arms. Her hair blew in the wind as her body raised up into the sky, and she tilted her head back. A big gust of wind hit the black thing soon after the girl looked back at the hole. The black thing blew back approximately fifty feet to reveal a boy on a tiger holding a little girl. She looked back at the black thing and realized it was coming back. The boy on the tiger's back looked very tired, as so did the tiger. She knew they wouldn't make it out of the path of the black hole in time.   
She tilts her head back again then a few seconds later flips back forward and looks at the tiger holding the two strange beings. A small tornado forms around the tiger and the two life forms, picking them up and tossing them out of the way of the black thing's path and towards her. The larger being in red hits a tree and falls to the ground. The smaller one hits the ground and tumbles for a while, while the tiger is put down really gently.   
The tiger immediately runs to the thing in red. She walks to the small one, turns the thing over and realizes it's human, but doesn't understand the weird shell that surrounds it. She picks up the small one and carries her to a small cabin. She lays her in her leaf and fur bed, then goes back to examine the larger being in red.   
When she gets there, the tiger is sitting there calmly looking at it. She goes over, pets the tiger, and turns the red thing over. It too was surrounded by a hard shell. She looks at it to see a face. What is this thing? It looks like me... but the ears are disgustingly small! She looks at his hair and then touches it. It feels like mine... is this strange one responsible for that black thing? And what is this shell that surrounds it? She goes to pick him up and finds that he is incredibly heavy. The tiger looks at her. She looks at him, then the tiger grabs Ryo and starts to drag him towards the little cabin. The girl follows behind. She gently puts warm fur over it and goes out to get some water.   
As she walks, she thinks, The one in red... it is peculiar. They are both very white. Was this one sent to me for a reason? Or is it just going to leave me too?   
When she reaches the stream she pulls out a little pouch. She pops off the top and dips the pouch into the water, filling it up. She puts the top back on and walks back to the cabin. When she got there she picks up the red ones head and puts water in its mouth. Its mouth was very dry. She then goes to the smaller one and does the same. Then she gives the rest to the tiger, who lapped it up quickly.   
She goes and sits down, watching a spider weave its web. She turns around suddenly when she hears a noise. The red one is stirring. When he starts to sit up she immediately stands up and backs into a corner.   
Ryo wakes up with the worst headache. He rubs his head then looks around and wonders where he was. He sees Ally under some skin of some type. Realizing he was in some type of a cabin, he looks around to see a young girl crouched in the corner, shaking. He gets up to help her, but then realizes how weak he is and immediately sits back down.   
The girl looks at him, realizing he's weak, and walks over to him. "What is the shell that covers you?" asks the girl.  
"Shell?" Ryo looks at her, puzzled. "What shell?" he whispers to himself.  
"The red one... that's on you..." says the girl, looking at him like he's insane.  
"My armor?" Ryo asks.  
"Armor? What is 'armor'?" the girl asks.  
"It's the 'shell' you call it," Ryo explains. He all of a sudden feels very dizzy. The girl, seeing this, grabs him before he tumbles over and lays him back down.   
"You need to rest," she says and walks away and goes out of the cabin for a walk.  
The last thing Ryo remembers was a girl with big ears that was very pretty talking to him before everything went black.   
***** 


	9. Chapter 7 part 2

Chapter 7  
Part two  
  
"So, what do we do? It's been three days," Rowen asks.  
"I don't know. Do you think we should go in?" Kat asks while laying in Rowen's lap.  
"Too risky," Sage says back.  
"Well, we can't just sit here!" Chi Chi snaps.  
"He could be hurt! We need to go now!" Kento adds in.  
"Rushing into things won't help, Kento!" Kit tells him.  
"I wouldn't say waiting three days is rushing!" Kento yells back.  
"We need a plan," Sage tells him.  
"So make one up! You've had three days!" Kento snaps back.  
"Kento, stop! You're worried, but you also want a good fight," Brittany says calmly.  
"Stay out of this!" Chi Chi yells.  
"Make me!" Brittney snaps.  
"Want me to?" remarks Chi Chi while shaking her fist.  
"Stop!" yells Rowen while he stands and puts his hands up. "None of this is going to help Ryo at all. Fighting solves NOTHING! I'd know from past experience." All the Ronins shake their heads in agreement. They all sit down and start talking.   
*****   
"Daller, Alex, Ryan get in here... NOW!" Trots yells. "This is Derek. He will be your new commander."   
The three warlords look at him in disgust. He was disgustingly cute and perfect in every way. He had short blonde hair, brown eyes, he didn't wear a shirt, and had a six pack which made him even sicker. He had a perfect smile, tall with broad shoulders. It didn't look like there was a piece of fat on him.   
He then spoke. "This is my team?" Derek said with a disgusted look on his face.  
"Yes, do what you like with them... just make sure they win!" Trots says as she storms out of the room.  
"Time to work out," said Derek with an evil smirk on his face.   
*****   
The girl, returning from her walk, looks in to see the boy sleeping soundly. I find myself having a strange attraction to this one in red. But no! I can't get attached to anyone else! They all leave! I won't go through that again! She looks at him as he stirs in his sleep and finds herself smiling. She looks at the small one and wonders, Does this one belong to him? Does he belong to another? NO! Get a grip on yourself! Who cares if he does! It doesn't matter! He won't be yours... and he never will be.   
Ryo's virtue sign begins to glow fiercely. He bolts upright, breathing heavily. He turns over to see Ally slowly stirring and moaning once in a while in her sleep. The girl, still startled from Ryo's sudden awakening, slowly walks over to him and kneels down.  
"What do they call you?" asks the girl.  
"Ryo... and your name is?" asks Ryo.  
"Name? What is 'name'?" asks the girl.  
"What do they call you?" Ryo asked anxiously.  
"A long time ago one called me... Mariah," replied the girl.  
"Okay, Mariah. What are you doing out here all alone?" asked Ryo curiously.  
"The one that called me Mariah left two years ago. I have been alone ever since," replied Mariah.  
"Do you have any food? Anything to eat?" Ryo asks.  
She turns around, goes and gets a bowl, then hands it to him. Ryo looks in to see some leaves and berries. He asks what it is. She replies, "Food," and picks up a leaf and stuffs it in her mouth.   
Ryo, with a bewildered look on his face, picks up a leaf with a berry on it and slowly slides it into his mouth. Chewing with a confused look on his face he mumbles, "Very good..." then continues eating.   
*****   
Derek looks at the three sweaty warlords and smiles an evil grin. "Okay, I'm going to cheek out our enemy; you keep working!" Derek says and disappears. The three warlords look at each other and stop working.  
Derek appeared a few feet away from the Ronin camp; he hid behind a tree, listening.  
"I say we go into the black whole NOW!!" Kento yells. "We're wasting time! WE NEED TO GO NOW!!"  
"KENTO!"   
"What?"  
"SHUT UP!!" every Ronin yells as the girls just sit there, rolling their eyes.  
Derek watches and listens, but Derek seems to only be watching one: a girl with dyed red hair, the one they called Kit. He had been watching her for a while; he had first seen her when he was talking with Trots and she was watching Ryo. And there she was laughing at HIS joke; oh, he didn't like HIM, but now he was stuck in a black hole and she was alone and open! Trots thought she's so in control, but soon she would be gone and he would be in control; Wildfire would be dead and Kit would be his for the taking.   
He snapped out of his thoughts when he released the Ronins weren't talking anymore, he turns so he can see the camp. The fire was still going, which meant they didn't go to bed, but they weren't there! He quickly looked around, no sign of them. All of a sudden he was knocked down onto his stomach; he tried to get up, but whoever was on his back was holding him down well. He looked up to see a dark blue armor.  
"What do you want?" Rowen asked.  
"What does every Dynasty warlord want?" Derek replied.  
"Oh, so you're a Dynasty freak?" Rowen mocked. Derek then realized that every Ronin and girl was there except HARDROCK! Then he felt something gooey fall on his neck. "Ahh, WHAT WAS THAT!!" Derek yells. The other Ronins and girls laugh. "WHAT WAS THAT?" he yells again.  
"OH, sorry, it seems my twinkie is drooling," Kento laughs. Then he takes the cream from the twinkie and smears it in his hair. "Have fun getting that out!"   
Derek then again tries to escape. Sage cringes as he thinks of how hard it would be to get out, and how much he'd kill Kento if he ever did that to him.  
"Give it up, NO one can get away from Kento! Now, let's see what you know." Rowen smiles.  
"First question!" Sage yells. "Where's Ryo?"  
"I don't know! And if I did, I wouldn't tell YOU!" Derek tells them.  
"Okay, then let's start with something simple; what's your name?" Chi Chi asks.  
"Derek."  
"Derek? That doesn't sound that evil. Were you always evil?" Sage asks, with a questioning look on his face.  
Derek looks at them, or at least what he could see with Kento on his back!   
"WELL?!" Kento asks.  
"Come on, what's something you did that you're still embarrassed by?" Tina asked.  
"How much did you weigh when you were born?" Sage asked. "How tall were you?" Everyone continued to ask stupid quistons while Kento continued to smear cream filling from his twinkie in his hair.   
"All right, all right! Ryo's staying with a 5'6" ELF and he's very happy, so why don't you just leave him alone!" Derek tells them.  
"Ryo would never turn his back on us!" Kat yelled.   
*****   
"So, Mariah, have you lived all alone since 'the one that called you Mariah' left?" Ryo asked. "Did you call him something besides that?"  
"The answers to the first question is yes and, he told me to call him the Ancient One."  
"THE ANCIENT ONE! Old guy big hat with bandages on his wrists and ankles?" Ryo asked, bug-eyed (in laymen's terms his eyes were big).  
"Yes, he said he would come back if he could. He said that two years ago; I have never seen him since. He taught me everything I know. Do you know him?" Mariah asked.  
"Yeah, is he your grandfather?" Ryo asked.  
"No, he came to me one night when I was six; he has raised me," Mariah told him.  
"And before that?" Ryo asked.  
"I don't know, all I remember is fire and my parents, or at least I think they were my parents, putting up this shield thing in front of a cave that I was in. Ever since then I've been scared to death of fire," Mariah explains.  
Oh she's scared of fire; that's nice since my power is fire. "So, how scared of fire are you?" Ryo asked.  
"Let's just say I could be frozen to death before I'd start one!" Mariah told him. "What about you, what's with the tiger; usually humans are scared of big animals! SO THEY KILL THEM!"  
"I know, it's so sad, they didn't do anything wrong, White Blaze and I go way back," Ryo tells her.  
"How far back?" Mariah asked curiously.  
"Let's just say he saved my life and for that I take care of him, he also takes care of me," Ryo says with a smile.  
"Why were you in the that black thing?" Mariah asked. "Did you make it?"  
"NO, I got caught in it when trying to find White Blaze," Ryo explains.  
"Do you know who built that THING! I'd like to have a chat with them!" Mariah asked with hate in her eyes.  
"Yeah, I do, but you don't want to get involved with them, trust me!"  
"If you know them they can't be that bad, can they?" Mariah asked.  
"I know them, but I wish I didn't. They're evil, me and my friends fight them," Ryo told her, with a stern look in his eyes. "You stay away from them; this is the only part of the Dynasty that I've seen that's not evil! I don't want that destroyed!"  
"All I want is to make all the Dynasty like this place," Mariah said as she looked around her home that kept getting smaller as the black hole got bigger. "We won't be able to stay here much longer," Mariah said as she looked at the black hole.  
"Don't worry, you put me up, so you can come and stay with me and my friends tell we get rid of this thing!" Ryo reassures her.   
"Well, then we better get going, it's getting late," Mariah said as she stood up and walked back towards the cottage. When they got there, Ally was awake and looking around; when she saw Ryo she ran over to him and hugged his legs. Ryo and Mariah start to explain what's going on while she eats.   
*****   
"I'm tired of this elf thing!" Trots says, as she watches. "WARLORDS!" Daller, Alex and Ryan appeared in front of her. "Where is Derek?" Trots asked.  
"We do not know, he went to see our enemy and hasn't returned," Daller explained.  
"I'll deal with him later. But as for you three, you are to go out and get ride of THAT ELF THING! Bring Wildfire and Flower to me!" Trots informed them.  
"Yes, Master," they all say and disappear.  
Once the three warlords get into the armor room, they started to talk. "I'm getting really getting tried of chasing after Wildfire!" Alex comments or yells.  
"What is it that she likes on him, anyway?" Ryan asked.  
"Don't ask me, I have no idea of what she sees in him!" Daller comments.  
"Hey, guys, this is a crazy idea, but what if we, so to say, 'accidentally killed Wildfire'? I mean, we go to hit the elf, not realizing Wildfire is close by, and he pushes her out of the way, and then he's too weak to fight and I'm afraid to say can't hold on. So to speak," Alex asks. The other two look at him in surprise, then smile.  
"Shall we go and get the Dynasty solders?" Daller asked.  
"Yes, let's." The three walk out of the room with big smiles in their faces.   
*****   
The black hole has played its part, I no longer need it, Trots thinks to herself, then waves her hand and the black hole disappears. Trots walks out of the room   
*****   
The Ronins were still questioning Derek when Sage suddenly shouts, "LOOK!" Everyone turns to see the dark thing was disintegratiing. They were so busy watching the black hole they didn't see Derek smile until Kento went flying over their heads. They turn around to see Derek standing up and dusting himself off.  
"If I wasn't so late you'd all be dead, but I am. Next time, next time, Ronins!" Derek disappears.   
*****   
"RYO!" Ryo ran outside at the sound of his name; he looks around to see Mariah standing there looking at the black thing that was disappearing. "It's leaving! It's LEAVING!! RYO, IT'S LEAVING, HA HA HAAA, YES!" Mariah said, jumping up and down and hugging Ryo. Before Ryo knew what was happening, something jumps on his back and a six-year-old voice started saying, "Now we can go home and see Kit and Kat!! Yea!" Then Ryo was on the ground with a wet tongue on his face; he pushed the tiger off just to get the two other girls to jump on him again. When he finally gets everyone off of him, he just sits there shaking his head side to side. "Aren't you happy, Ryo?"  
"It's great, but it doesn't make any sense. Why would the Dynasty decide to put it down and let me go home... unless THEY'RE COMING! We have to leave NOW!!"   
But before anyone could do anything Dynasty solders poured out of the trees. Ryo immediately took his stance to guard Mariah; White Blaze started slashing at them all, and Ally took out her squirt gun, which Ryo noticed was a little bigger. Ryo decided to ask her about it later.  
They start fighting. The three warlords watch from afar. "Should we wait for a while or should we get ride of them NOW? Daller asked.  
"Well, let's wear them down a little first! Find a seat, boys, this should be fun!" Alex comments.  
Ryo and the others were fighting for theri lives. Ryo did a front kick up and slashed threw the armor; he whipped around and punched another in the face. Ally was squirting every Dynasty soldier she saw and where she squirted flowers poked out, but these flowers were bigger than before, the flowers made a hole and released the dark energy that filled them.   
White Blaze continued to slash everything. Mariah kicked the solders away from her, then Ryo would finish them off. They went on like that for a couple of minutes and the solders just kept coming.   
Ryo knew that the Dynasty was up to something but he wasn't sure what. He started to get tired, so he decided that this was stupid! "ARMOR OF THE WILDFIRE, DAO CHI!"  
Mariah watched as light swirled around Ryo, then he came out of the light, and he was wearing another shell that was like the old one, except it was bigger and it had a little blue in it and two swords on the back. She had no idea what had just happened, and she didn't have time to cause he pulled out his two swords, jumped into the air and shouted "FLARE UP NOWWW!" And FIRE came out of his swords, FIRE! He controls FIRE, NO, NO this isn't true, NOOOO! Mariah stared to run, she just wanted to get away from HIM.   
The Dynasty solders watch and laugh as the scared girl/elf ran, and then Ryo ran after her. Ally was going to go after Ryo, but White Blaze grabbed her and held her back. "Let them go, the fool left the kid alone, let's get her and we'll deal with Wildfire later. He'll be busy for a while," Daller said. The three warlords then look at the little girl and smile.  
"Get away from me, you DEVIL!" Mariah shouted when she saw Ryo.  
"Mariah, I'm sorry, I can't control what my power is. It's just my armor's power. It won't hurt you, please listen to me. Mariah?"  
"No, stay away from me! It's your fault my parents are dead. It's your fault!" Mariah screamed  
"NO, I'm not the controller of fire, I can just make it come out of my swords. I can't control fire and I can't put it out once it starts, the only fire I can control is the fire that comes out of these swords and that's all, I'm sorry," Ryo tells her.   
Mariah starts crying. Ryo holds her protectively and they stay that way for a couple minutes when they hear a scream. They both run back to were Ally was. White Blaze was laying next to a tree; Ryo quickly ran next to him, he was all right, just knocked out. He looked around for Ally, but he didn't have to look long.  
"Oh, Wildfire, looking for this?" Daller asked, holding up a limp Ally.  
"LET HER GO!" Wildfire shouted.  
"Oh, no, this armor of hers is very valuable to the Dynasty," Daller explains, then disappears. Ryo falls to his knees and bangs the ground with his fists.  
"NO!! NO, NOOOOOOO!" Ryo screamed. "She's just a child, she didn't belong here, I shoudn'd have let her come."  
"Ryo, it's not your fault," Mariah told him.  
Ryo stood up and looked at her. "Yes, it is, but I'm not going to sit around and feel sorry for myself; the last time I did that White Blaze almost died. Let's go, we're going to find my friends!" Ryo told her, he started to walk away. He turned around and looked at her just standing there.  
"What are your friends' powers?" Mariah asked.  
"Come on, we'll walk and talk," Ryo told her. She then stared walking; Ryo waited till she was by his side then started walking as well.   
*****   
"Master Trots, we have brought you the child as you have asked," Daller reported.  
"Bring her in."  
Alexs comes in first, then comes Ryan with Ally under his arm. Ally had woken up and was fighting with all her might even though Ryan held her easily, without any trouble.  
"Set her down!" Ryan set her down in front of Trots. "Hello there, little girl, what's your name?" Trots asks in a motherly tone.  
"Ryo says you're a bad person!" Ally responds.  
"No, I'm not bad, I just want to join my world with your world. Is that reality all that bad?" Trots asks.  
"NO, but trying to rule it is! Don't try to make me think you're good cause I'm not that stupid, I may be little but not stupid!" Ally snaps back.  
"Take her to the room I set up for her earlier," Trots told them. Ryan again picked Ally up and the three warlords walked out of the room.  
A couple minutes later Derek walks in; he looked terrible. "What happened to you, and where have you been?" Trots asked.  
"Whipped cream, twinkie, HARDROCK," Derek said, annoyed by all.  
"Right, so did you learn anything there?"  
"Yeah, that I hate twinkies," Derek says and walks out of the room.   
*****   
"So, you guys, if we're going to find Ryo, and the elf, where do we go?" Kento asked.  
"I hate to say this, but it might be better if we stayed right here. We don't know witch way Ryo went, but he does know where we are. If we start walking we might be walking away from him instead of towards him," Kit told them.  
"She's right," Rowen agreed.  
"No NO NOO! I refuse to sit here any longer! We don't even know who this elf thing is, if he was telling the truth! Ryo might not even by with anyone besides Ally and White Blaze. He could be hurt! Ally could be hurt! Hell, White Blaze might even be hurt, HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO DRAG A FIVE HUNDRED POUND TIGER AROUND!! HUH!!" Kento yells.  
"Okay, Kento, calm down..."  
Without warning Kento turns around and punches Sage straight in the face. "YOU CALM DOWN! YOU ARE NOT MY BOSS OR IN THIS CASE MY LEADER; RYO'S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!"  
Rowen helps Sage up and looked at his chin, it would leave a bruise but it would be okay. But by then Rowen lost his temper. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, KENTO, YOU COULD HAVE BROKE HIS CHIN? THEN WHAT! HUH, THEN WHAT WOULD WE HAVE DONE THEN!" Rowen yells. 


	10. Chapter 8

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Eight   
Kit's Notebook:  
Things have been falling apart ever since Ryo disappeared into the black hole. The guys have been fighting like crazy, and it has gotten even worse over the last week. Sage's chin is still really swollen. (It's been three days!) We're trying to keep ice on it.   
Kento is so mad that he's only eating four meals a day! He spends most of his time punching something, or leafing something. Sage is in a mood of "If you talk to me I'll kill you". Rowen is watch Kento like a hawk. Cye is trying to be Mr. Peace Maker, not very well but hey, at least he's trying.   
Brittney is staying by Sage's side, trying to keep ice on his chin. Kat keeps trying to revert Rowen's attention to her instead of Kento. Tina is trying to be Miss Peace Maker along with Cye. Chi Chi has been training with Kento just so he is not alone.  
As for me I've just really been thinking about HOW STUPID THIS IS!! We now have a new enemy, a cute enemy. But that's beside the point. I just hope Ryo gets back soon, I'm afraid that if he doesn't come back soon then we'll be fighting each other.   
"Rowen, back off! Else you want a black eye I suggest you leave me alone! No one put you in charge!" Kento yelled.  
Kit put away her notebook and got up to help. When she got there Chi Chi and Kat were already in between them trying to keep them apart.   
"You guys, cool it!" Kit yelled. "I recall someone saying not too long ago that fighting will solve NOTHING!" Kit eyed Rowen and Kento. Rowen then turned around and left, but not before giving Kento a "I'm going to kill you" look. Kento watched him leave then walked the other way.   
"This is bad, if they don't start getting along soon..." Kat trailed off.  
"We just have to keep them apart until Ryo makes it back. Everyone is on the edge right now because no one knows what to do. Expect more fights to break out," Chi Chi said right before walking after Kento.   
"She's right, you know," Kit said, looking ahead.  
"Yeah, I know, and there's no way to stop it unless we find Ryo," Kat said, watching Rowen read his book.   
"Why don't we split up?" Kit asked.  
"WHAT! What good would that do?" Kat asked.  
"Well, someone could stay here in case he comes back here. Then everyone else could go different ways and then later in the day we could meet back here and see what everyone found," Kit explained.  
"That's great but then what if the Dynasty attacked one person, then they would be helpless," Kat pointed out.   
"So we'll go in partners. We could go together, Sage and Rowen could be another team, then Kento and Cye could be the last team; the three cousins could be the one that stayed here. It works perfectly," Kit said with ease.   
"You know, that might work!"   
"Of course all my plans work!" Kit said.  
"Let's go and talk to the others about it see if it will really work!" Kat said, pointing to her and smiling.   
*****   
Ally sat in a room holding her knees to her chest; there were toys and candy all around her, but she refused to touch any of it. Every couple minutes Trots would come in and try to get her to be her friend, but Ally was smarter then that and refused every offer she made.   
Trots then walked into the room and sat next to her. "Hello, little one. Have you had fun with all these toys?" Trots asked.  
"I TOLD YOU I DIDN'T WANT YOUR STUPID STUFF, I WANNA GO SEE MY SISTERS! NOWWW!" Ally yelled.  
"I see, well, you can't, so I suggest you make the best of it here!" Trots then left.   
Ally waited a couple seconds after she left then got up and went around the room; she then saw a stuffed animal that looked like a small White Blaze, she then picked it up and gave it a hug. "Don't worry, I'll see you soon, White Blaze," Ally whispered, holding the stuffed animal even closer as she started crying.   
*****   
White Blaze walked ahead of Ryo, Mariah on White Blaze's back. White Blaze stopped when they came to a fork; he looked at Ryo.   
"Hey, don't look at me, you're the one with the nose, SMELL!" Ryo said. White Blaze snorted, then smelled the air. He then went right. Ryo followed behind.   
A couple minutes later Ryo stopped. "This is good, boy, we'll stop here for the night." White Blaze just snorted again, then kept on walking. "Hey, I said we'd stop, White Blaze, come back here." Ryo ran after White Blaze, Mariah laughed. When Ryo caught up with White Blaze he stood right in front of him. "I said STOP!" Ryo yelled at the tiger. White Blaze again snorted but stopped. "Thank you!"   
Mariah got off White Blaze's back and turned to Ryo. "You know, he was trying to tell you something," Mariah said.  
"What?" Ryo asked.  
"I dunno, maybe the camp is near, maybe it's right over there," she said, pointing into darkness.   
"Well, then if the camp is over there then we'll see it in the morning. Good night." Ryo then started setting up the beds made of leaves.   
*****   
Everyone was sitting around the fire talking about Kit's plan to find Ryo. They all agreed that it would work. Hours passed; they were about to head to bed when they heard a roar. They all turned around to see White Blaze running up.  
"White Blaze!" just about everyone shouted. Then followed by complete chaos.  
"Everyone shut up!" Tina yelled. "Okay, White Blaze, where's Ryo and Ally, huh, are they near?"   
White Blaze roared again. "Well, where are they, boy?" Chi Chi asked.  
"Is Ally all right?" Kat asked. White Blaze put his head down and did a low growl. "What does that mean, KIT, what does that mean!!" Kat asked or yelled.   
"I don't know, but I'm sure Ryo will." Kit turned back towards White Blaze. "Where is he?" White Blaze looked at her, then went towards the fire and laid down.   
"Okay, I guess that's a negative response," Kento said, watching him. All the girls glared at him; the guys all laughed.  
"No, that would mean he's fine and my guess would be that Ryo didn't take the hint that they were almost here, so White Blaze is going to let him sleep tentless, serves him right. Ha, those two," Sage said, laughing.  
"Hey, what about that elf thing Derek was talking about, you think she really exists?" Rowen asked.  
"Who knows, you never can tell when Warlords are telling the truth or lying. Oh, well, I guess we'll find out tomorrow," Sage said, staring at White Blaze.  
"Yeah, White Blaze isn't going anywhere tonight," Cye said, also watching White Blaze, who was asleep.   
*****   
Ryo awoke with the sun shining in his eyes. He squinted to the light, then got up and looked around, surprised he didn't see White Blaze anywhere, though. He stood up, and searched around and he found what he was looking for, White Blaze's footprints.   
Ryo woke Mariah up. "Where's White Blaze?" she asked, looking around.   
"I think he decided to go to camp without us; come on, we'll follow his footprints." Mariah stood up and followed Ryo.   
*****   
"Derek, report!" Trots shouted. Derek appeared, kneeling. "Please explain why Wildfire is about an hour away from joining his friends!! When I got you, you said you wouldn't let me down! But so far you seem no better then Daller!"  
"Please forgive me, my mistress, I underestimated the Ronins; it will not happen again," Derek explained.  
"It had better not. Now go stop this; destroy the other Ronins but save one of the sisters, I think one of them might help bring around young Flower." Derek then nodded his head and disappeared.   
*****   
Derek appeared right in front of Kit's and Kat's tent; he then turned to Kento's and Cye's and smiled. He raised his sword above his head it started to glow. "So long, Ronins," he whispered.  
Something then knocked him down, followed by a shout. "Kento, Cye, get out of there!" Sage was then knocked from Derek's back. Kento and Cye (plus everyone else) came running out. Sage stood up. "If you did your homework, Warlord, you would've known better than that," Sage said.   
"What on Earth do you mean?" Derek asked.  
"What he means is if you had known anything about us you would have known Sage and Ryo get up at the ass-crack of dawn!" Rowen said with sleep still in his eyes. Kat smiled.  
"It doesn't matter if you're awake or not, I'll destroy you either way!" Derek got in a fighting stance.  
"Let's armor up, guys," Rowen said.   
Kento frowned, thinking that was what Ryo was supposed to say, but then he looked at White Blaze growling and smiled.   
"Armor of the Strata!"  
"Armor of the Halo!"  
"Armor of the Torrent!"   
"Armor of the Hardrock!"  
"Armor of the Jungle!"  
"Armor of the Forest! Dao Chi!"  
"Okay, Warlord, time to die!" Sage shouted; they were about to start fighting when Brittany suddenly gasped. "What?" Sage asked.  
"HIM! I just read his mind! And from what I see the only real thing he wants is KIT!"   
Everyone gasped. Derek panicked and grabbed Kit before anyone could say a thing. He disappeared, and Kat's eyes nearly popped out of her head as she saw her sister disappear.  
It took her a couple seconds but she then started crying hard and saying 'no' over and over again. After a little bit it changed from 'no' to 'come back' and 'please'. Rowen held her clothes, trying to calm her down. Kento punched a tree. Rowen gave him a glare when he did.   
"Kento, I'm trying to calm her down! You wanna be a little more quiet PLEASE!" Rowen said in a low but deadly whisper.   
Kento was about to say something but Sage stood in the middle and gave him a look that said 'not now'. Kento backed down, and sat down next to White Blaze.   
Things stayed quiet for the next forty minutes. But then the quiet time was broken when Ryo came running, holding the hand of the giant elf, the one Derek was talking about.   
Kento couldn't believe his eyes when Derek had talked about a giant elf; he never ever thought she might be pretty. She was drop-dead beautiful. I wonder if Ryo already has dibs on her? Kento thought to himself.  
Everyone ran up to Ryo as the 'giant elf' hid behind him. Everyone started talking at the same time. Everything Ryo heard went in one ear and out the other.   
"Wow, wow, huh? Yeah, what! Sure. What, huh?" Ryo's eyes got bigger as they got louder. "Huh? No! What! Huh! Yeah! No, I mean yes, I mean no, I mean STOPP!!" Ryo yelled. "Okay, one at a time. You first," he said, pointing to Kento.   
"Yeah, who is that, and where is Ally?" Kento asked.  
Ryo sighed, he dreaded the second part of that question; he knew how Kit and Kat would react. He was about to answer when he noticed Kit wasn't there. "Where's Kit?" Ryo asked, looking concerned.   
"Kit? Kit was taken by Derek," Rowen explained and Kat choked back another sob.   
Ryo looked at Kat. This is going to kill her, he thought to himself, but then something hit him. "Who's Derek?" Ryo asked.  
"A new Warlord, and from what Britt read in that mind he has the hots for Kit. And let me tell you, he's one of those guys that you just want to kill cause he's so damn good-looking," Kento explained.  
"Oh, great, another 'Sage'," Ryo mumbled.  
"HEY, I heard that!" Sage yelled. Everyone laughed and even Kat smiled at it.   
"WHERE'S ALLY, RYO!" Kat yelled, changing the mood.  
"With her sister," Ryo said, looking down.   
"NO! How could YOU! I trusted you to take care of her! You bastard!" Kat ran off.  
Ryo hang his head down, everyone watched him. Mariah stepped out from behind him. "It was my fault Ally was taken, not his."   
"Mariah! That's not true!" Ryo tried to say.  
"Yes, it is; you ran after me, if I just would have stayed and let you explain it wouldn't have happened," Mariah went on.  
"NO, I should have told you in the first place so you wouldn't have been so surprised!" Ryo threw back.  
"Wow, guys, hold it, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. All that matters is how we get both Ally and Kit back!" Sage said, looking them both over.   
"Sage's right, we need find a way to get them back and soon. Ryo, Kat's probably going to hate you until we find Ally. I'll try to talk to her, but be prepared. Kay? It's good to have you back though, man," Rowen said, then turned and walked away to go find Kat.   
*****   
Derek walked into Trots' lair with Kit's limp body under one arm.   
"Well, AT LEAST you did ONE thing right! Even though all my hard work to spilt up Ryo from the rest of the group WAS FOR NOTHING!" Trots looked down at Kit's limp body. "Wake her up."   
Derek looked at Trots, then at Kit; he slapped Kit right across the face. Kit moaned as she came to. She weakly opened her eyes, then looked around. When she realized where she was, she started screaming and kicking.   
Derek let her go, and she stumbled a couple of feet back. She looked at them both. "Where am I!" she asked, looking them both over.   
"Relax, Jungle, we only spared your life because we need you to take care of your sister," Trots explained.  
"My sister? Kat's here!"  
"Not Kat, Flower," Derek corrected her.  
"ALLY? Ally's here!"  
"Yes; Derek, get her out of here, take her to her sister, see if she can get her to eat anything."   
Derek grabbed her and held her over his shoulder and walked off, much to Kit's dismay.   
*****   
Ryo sat on a rock about a mile away from camp, long enough away that he could be alone without someone walking by and start asking questions, but close enough that if the Dynasty attacked he'd be at camp in five seconds.   
Ryo started to think to himself. Why am I so weak! I didn't used to be this weak. What's wrong with me! I'm letting my guard down! Every two seconds! The bathroom! My first fight with Trots! The black hole! Ally! Every single one I could have stopped from happening! I gotta get my head in the game! What's wrong with me?   
I'm feeling sorry for myself, that's what's wrong! Of course, every time I got hurt it was because I was feeling sorry for myself! This is my fault! NO! No, that's in the past now, I can't keep feeling sorry for myself! My friends need me! Ryo thought, then said out loud, "Hey what am I still doing here, I've got people to save, demons to destroy!!" Ryo got up and walked towards camp.   
*****   
Rowen stood beside Kat; they were just a little bit out of camp. "So, are you okay?" Rowen asked her.  
"Yeah, I'll be okay as soon as Ryo's not the leader anymore!" Kat said with hate in her eyes.  
"Kat..."  
"NO, Rowen, you asked me to give him a chance. I DID; he can't do it!"  
"Kat, stop! You're not being fair! It wasn't Ryo's fault Kit was taken, and we don't even really know what happened with Ally. You ran off before he could explain, remember!" Rowen said, defending his friend. "Look, Kat, we don't know what happened out there, we weren't there! If you really want to try to get Ryo out of being the leader go ahead, but I'm telling you now that me and the other guys will all stand behind Ryo! And I'm sure that most of the girls will stand behind him too!"  
"I don't know, Chi Chi doesn't really like him, remember when we first found them!" Kat started to get angry again but this time it wasn't because of Ryo, it was because of Rowen.  
"No, maybe she doesn't, but I do happen to know that she does like Kento A LOT. I also know Kento and Ryo are really good friends. Okay, let's add this up, Kento plus Chi Chi equals Ry as leader. It's that simple. As long as 'us guys' follow Ryo plus just two girls, Ryo stays, sorry," Rowen said calmly.   
Kit was about to say something back, but Rowen interrupted. "We should head back to camp." Rowen walked away; Kat followed. When they got back to camp Kat went to talk to Tina. Rowen went to work things out with Kento.  
"Hey, Kento, wait up!"  
Kento turned around to see Rowen running up. "What do you want?" Kento asked.  
"I wanted to talk to you about what happened earlier."  
"Forget it, Rowen, we were both on edge about Ryo. Neither of us were thinking clearly, it's cool, forget it, man," Kento said, putting his hand on his shoulder.   
"I don't get you!" Rowen said, smiling. "I mean, every time I think I figured you out, you totally change!" They both laughed.   
"Hey, what can I say? If I have a problem I get pissy, once it's solved everything I did earlier is over." Kento shrugged his shoulders. They laughed again.   
"HEY, WHAT'S EVERYONE SITTING AROUND FOR?" Everyone turned around to see Ryo. "We got people to save."   
Kat stood up. "Yeah, we do, so what do you want?" Kat said, glaring at him.   
Ryo looked at her, shook his head, then grabbed a stick and kneeled down. "Okay, everyone come over here! Please," Ryo said, drawing a square in the dirt, followed by many rectangles, and other shapes, making a map of the Dynasty.   
After Ryo finished the map he looked at everyone around him; they all stood there waiting for him to start. "Okay, here's the thing, remember how I freaked about the 'west'? Okay, well, it's time for me to get over that. Rowen, I want you with me here," he said, pointing to the west side, and made an 'X' in one of the shapes.  
"Sage, I want you and Kat here on the north side." Ryo made another 'X' at where he wanted them. "Cye, Kento, you got the south. Girls," he said as he made the 'X' where Cye and Kento would be, then looked at the cousins, "okay, do you guys think you can hold yourselves or do you want me to put each of you with one of us?" he said, indicating the other three groups.  
"We can hold our own," Chi Chi said as the other two nodded in agreement.  
"Besides, you need someone to take the east," Brittany added in. Ryo smiled.   
"Okay, everyone's to search their area well! And work your way to here," Ryo said, pointing to the very middle area. "That's where we'll meet! If you don't show, we'll assume you either found Ally and Kit or that you're in trouble and we'll come after you! So if you don't have either of those properties and you're just taking your sweet time, you know, enjoying the sights, well you're putting everyone behind. Try to be fast, yet make sure you search everywhere!"   
"So, when is this 'search' going to start? I need to see how long I have to make up a plan that will really work," Kat said, glaring.   
Ryo snapped his head at her, "KAT, I'm tired of this; I, AM, leader of the Ronins, no, maybe not you, but as long as you're staying with us you're part of this team; you will listen to me! So shut your mouth and do what I say. Do I make myself clear?" Ryo tried his hardest not to lose his temper, but if she made another smart comment he'd lose it.   
"What are you going to do, hit a female? That would be so like you, WildFLOWER, wait I can't say that, it disses Ally," Kat snarled back.  
Ryo's eyes swirled with fire as he lost his temper! "I SUGGEST YOU SHUT UP," Ryo said, grinding his teeth together.  
Sage, seeing the anger in his eyes, stepped in. "Hey, Ryo, man, you wanna.."   
"No, Sage, Mister WildLIER can take care of himself. Can't you?" Kat said, glaring at him.   
Rowen saw right through her. She was trying to make him lose his temper so she'd have something to get him out of being the leader. She had planned this! He just hoped it wouldn't work, because as soon as he lost it no one would be able to stop him. Kat was going to see how strong he was if she didn't shut up.  
Ryo closed his eyes for a second, then opened them back up and smiled. "Okay, Kat, you wanna make up your own plan, go for it." Ryo made a movement with his arm. "Have fun, and when you're done we'll have a vote for who has the best plan; if you win then not only will we take your plain but I will step down from being the leader and you can choose who you want to be leader. As long as they agree, of course. Oh, and it has to be done by eight o'clock A.M., can't take too much time on it, ya know."  
"Of course; next time I see you, you will no longer be the leader; bye." Kat walked off to her tent.  
"Ryo, are you insane?!" Sage yelled.  
"Yeah, what if she wins?" Kento added in.  
Rowen smiled. "Man! I knew you could be mean, but THAT! HARSH!" Rowen and Ryo laughed.  
"Maybe she'll listen next time." Ryo smiled and Rowen laughed, then they walked away. The others just watched.  
"Ahh, am I missing something?" Kento shook his head and Sage put a hand on his shoulder. Kento looked at him; he wore the same look he did. Clueless.  
"Who knows what goes on in those two's heads?" Cye said, looking at the four girls that were still there. He then turned to Mariah. "Hey, Mariah, we don't know much about you. Wanna talk about who you are?"   
*****   
Rowen and Ryo sat about a mile away from camp, laughing. "So, you think she'll be up all night or just give up at one o'clock?" Rowen asked, smiling big.   
"Oh, Kat's stubborn, I'll give her to TWO!" They both cracked up. "Or maybe she'll make something up, then I can pick away and make it sound horrible."   
"Yeah, but be nice." Rowen smiled.  
"Yeah, that's right, you like her, don't you, and when I prove her wrong she'll be coming to you."  
"Hey, that's right!" Rowen got an evil look on his face. "On second thought, be harsh, be cruel!" They both cracked up. "I have to admit, I thought you were about to lose it up there," Rowen said, poking him.   
"Yeah I thought I was going to, too. But I could never hit a girl. No matter how hard I wanted to."   
"HA, LIAR!"   
Ryo looked at him. "Excuse me, I said I wouldn't hit a girl! Not an IT, I have no problem hitting an it!"   
"I've seen you hit a girl, Ryo, a couple times."   
"LIAR, I WOULD NEVER! EVER! HIT A FEMALE" Ryo yelled; he couldn't believe Rowen.  
"Ryo, what about Kayura?"  
Ryo froze. "That was different! She was trying to destroy the world!" Ryo defended himself.  
"Ah ah ah!" Rowen did the old move of moving his finger in front of Ryo's face. "She was still a female!"  
"I would never hit a normal female! I mean, even you have to admit Kayura wasn't normal!"   
"Yeah, maybe, but she was still a female!" Rowen pointed out. "And then there's Trots, and she's a female too!"  
"BUT SHE'S FARTHER AWAY THAN KAYURA WAS TO BEING NORMAL!" They both laughed again.   
*****   
"Have your fun, Wildfire, for it won't last." Trots was watching Ryo and Rowen in her glass. Then it switched over to Kat, who was writing things down on a notebook, crossing them out. "HA! She'll never do it in that short amount of time! I best round up the Warlords. The fight is about to begin." Trots walked out of her throne room.   
  
What did you think? Write me back, please, I need feedback! 


	11. Chapter 9

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Nine   
Kit sat leaning against the wall, with Ally sleeping in her lap. Kit gently ran her fingers through Ally's hair. She looked up as two single tears ran down her face. Ally sighed and cuddled closer to Kit. Kit looked back down at Ally and smiled.   
At that moment the door burst open, waking Ally up. Kit and Ally both looked up to see Derek walk in holding a tray of food and drinks. Kit and Ally stood up and Kit held Ally close to her.   
Derek smiled at their fear of him. He then looked around the room in disgust, at the fuzzy stuffed animals and the cute little bed with a little table with a toy tea set on it. In the corner was a pile of magazines, make-up, and hair stuff. He knew that none of it had EVER been touched by the two girls. He walked over to the small table and set down the tray. He then started to walk towards Kit. Kit immediately stepped in front of Ally and got in a fighting stance. He laughed.   
"Really, Jungle, do you really think you could beat me! Let alone in my own home! This should be interesting," Derek laughed. Kit put her arms down and glared at him. "He he he," Derek laughed again, "Well now, that's better." Derek ran a hand down Kit's face and she jerked away. Derek smirked, then walked out of the room.   
Kit watched him leave, then dropped to her knees, and started crying. Ally came up behind her and hugged her neck. Kit wrapped her arms around her.   
*****   
Sage woke up slowly and stretched. He crawled to the tent opening. When he opened it his eyes went wide, there was snow on the ground! "I WENT to bed and it was like a warm spring night. NOW IT'S WINTER! Okay, something is wrong here, very, very, wrong." Sage heard a moan and turned around to see Kento shivering in his sleeping bag. Sage shook his head in disbelief. "Well, at least he's not snoring! I only had to hit him five times last night to make him stop! Ha."  
Sage smiled at the thought of that. Every time he had hit him, Kento would moan and roll over on his side. Sage looked back at the snow. "I better wake Ryo and tell him." Sage walked over to Ryo's tent and wondered how cold it was. With his armor he couldn't tell; he could feel the breeze on his face, but his armor kept him warm.   
Sage opened the tent to see a sleeping Rowen but no Ryo. "Where is he? Damn, I'm going to kill him one of these days, I SWEAR I WILL! Might as will ask Rowen, see if knows. THAT IS IF I can WAKE him UP!" Sage rolled his eyes at his friend that could solve any math problem in a second but couldn't wake up in the morning! Sage smiled and sat down next to Rowen's sleeping body.   
"Rowen, oh Rowen." Rowen didn't even move. Sage sighed. "ROWEN, WAKE UP!" He figured that woke everyone up! But not Rowen, he just turned on his side and kept on sleeping!   
Kento walked up to the tent and looked in. "Having problems, Sage?" Kento asked as he sat down next to Sage.   
Sage glared at Kento, then looked back at Rowen's STILL sleeping form. "Do you know how to wake him up!" Sage pointed at Rowen.   
"Cye said cold water sometimes helps."   
"Do you have any cold water, Ken-TO!"   
"No, but we have snow," Kento said with a huge smile on his face as he looked at the snow. Sage's face want from a frown to a huge smile! He then looked at Kento and the both ran out of the tent to see Cye, Kat, Brittney, and Tina standing there.   
"Hey!" Kento said as he grabbed a handful of snow.   
"What's going on, we heard Sage scream Rowen's name, is everything okay?" Brittney asked.   
"Fine, we're just waking him up!" Sage said as he added some more snow to his snowball. "Well, gotta go, if you hear another scream it's just Rowen waking up. Bye," Sage said as he and Kento and him went in the tent.   
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" was heard from miles away, and soon after there was extreme laughter!   
*****   
Ryo was sitting on a rock trying to mediate like Sage had taught him to, but it wasn't working very well. His mind kept wandering. He didn't get much sleep last night and it didn't help that there was snow on the ground! Ryo sighed and again tried to relax himself. He had just about got to the mediation point when he heard (what sounded like Sage) scream Rowen's name.   
Ryo just stared for a moment. Well, it didn't sound alarmed! It sounded pissed! Ryo thought to himself. He debated wether or not to go make sure. He figured he was just trying to wake him up. Ryo sighed again, then started to relax again. No sooner had he almost got there, then there was another scream. This one sounded like shock. Ryo stared wide0eyed toward camp "What the HELL is going on over there! It's not the Dynasty, because I don't feel them! Damn! It sounds like they're killing someone." Ryo sighed again. "Probably just waking Rowen up! But now I gotta go see and make sure, {sigh} so much for relaxing!" Ryo started a light jog toward camp.   
*****   
Mariah woke to a scream; the first one she heard didn't sound like much, just someone yelling for some odd reason, but the second one was LOUD! When Mariah had heard that one she had jumped out of her sleeping bag so fast and was out of that tent looking around for the source of the scream.   
Everyone was now out of their tents; Cye, Kat, Britt and Tina were laughing but the others all had clueless faces on. Kento, Sage and Rowen weren't there. But just as she finished thinking that, out came a laughing Sage and Kento (who were leaning on each other as a support so not to fall laughing). Rowen came out next but he didn't seem to be in quite as good mood as the other two, in fact he looked downright mad. She looked again to realize Ryo was also gone. She thought, Well, maybe he's still in his tent, but she soon realized that Sage and the other two had come out of Ryo's tent.   
"SOMEONE want to tell me what is going on?" Chi Chi yelled.   
Kento and Sage looked at her then at each other and laughed even harder. Cye shook his head and took a step up. "From what I got," Cye paused and looked at Sage and Kento again, and the pissed Rowen, then continued, "Sage wanted to wake up 'sleepyhead' Rowen and couldn't, then Kento comes in to help and they decide SNOW is the best thing to do! But I don't think Rowen agreed," Cye said with a smile.   
Rowen glared at Cye AND at Kento and Sage, WHO had woken him up and had given him NO reason why! Rowen sighed, "Do you two want to tell me WHY you woke me up!" Rowen asked the two laughing boys.   
Sage got up to tell him but one look at his sleepy and now red face (from the cold snow) sent him tumbling down with laughter again!   
"That's it, I'm going back to bed!" Rowen started to turn on his heel to head back. When he stopped and looked around. "There's snow on the ground," he said, pointing down. That made Kento and Sage laugh even harder!   
Cye rolled his eyes. "Rowen, you're just now realizing this! Man, you are fast in the morning!" Cye said with sarcasm in his voice.   
Ryo ran in, looked around, then looked back at the two laughing boys and lifted an eyebrow. "What's with them?" Ryo asked while pointing at them with his thumb.   
"Nevermind, Ryo, it's a long story," Cye told him. Ryo shrugged his shoulders; he figured he'd find out one way or another. He then turned to face Kat. "Hey, Kat, I believe we need to do some talking? We can do it out here or we can do it in private, it's up to you," Ryo told her.   
Kat glared at him. "Just a second! I'll go get my 'work'; we can go in private if you wish. It might be easier on you." Kat turned and went in her tent. Ryo and Rowen both snickered.   
Ryo turned to Rowen, "Easier on me?" He snickered again. Rowen just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.   
Sage looked up from laughing his eyes were now watering, because he was laughing SO hard. He then looked at Ryo. "Ryo? Hey, hey Kento look... it's RYO." Kento started laughing again. Sage smiled hugely, then put on an innocent face and turned to Rowen. "Okay, Rowen, now you can go to bed!" Sage said through laughs.   
Rowen rolled his eyes; Ryo just stared, wondering what all this had to do with HIM! Just then Kat came back out with a notepad, paper, and other various items. Ryo looked at her like she was crazy.   
"Well, are we going to do this or not!" Kat said in a snotty voice.  
"After you," he said with a hand gesture. She walked right past him holding her things to her chest and her head up high. Ryo started walking after her, but Rowen caught his arm. Ryo gave him a questioning look. Rowen's face hardened and took on a serious look.   
"Don't be to hard on her, kay?" Rowen said out of concern.   
"I'll try my best! But if she starts putting on that 'bitch' attitude again," Ryo sighed, "I might lose it! And when I lose it I say things I don't mean..." Ryo sighed, "as you guys all know!" Ryo and Rowen looked at Kat, who was tapping her foot and looking angry.   
Rowen made a face that meant this is going to get ugly. He swallowed hard. Then without taking his eyes off of Kat said, "TRY! Try really, REALLY hard!" He then looked at Ryo who had a look of digust smeared across his face.   
"Like I said before, I'll do my best."   
"HELLO! Like, are we doing this today or tomorrow!" Kat said, still tapping her foot.   
"Tomorrow!" Ryo said as he walked towards her.   
Kat snickered. "AFTER YOU! It seems when I go first we never leave!"   
Ryo walked right past her as she had done earlier. She glared at him, then they disappeared   
Rowen watched them leave, oh he wanted to go with just to make sure everything stayed under control. But it wasn't his place, and he knew that. Rowen then looked back at Kento and Sage who were still laughing but not nearly as hard now, they were more of giggles. Rowen rolled his eyes. Then a smile crossed his lips as he got an idea. He went down to one knee and made two fairly good-sized snowballs. He picked them both up and smiled bigger.   
"Hey, Kento, Sage," Rowen yelled, and as soon as they both looked at him he nailed them both square in the face. That shut them up, in fact they looked like they were in shook! Sage wiped the snow from his face, as did Kento. "What's wrong? Why aren't you guys laughing anymore?" Rowen said with an innocent little voice.   
Sage glared at him. "Fine, you wanna play that way!" Sage grabbed a handful of snow and chucked it at Rowen he dove out of the way just in time, but unfortunately for Chi Chi (who was right behind him) got nailed in the back of her head. Sage and Rowen completely froze. Kento started cracking up!   
Chi Chi glared at him. Then got a snowball of her own. and nailed Kento (again) in the face. "HEY! I didn't throw that snowball he did, he did!" Kento said, pointing at Sage over and over again!   
"He'll get his," Chi Chi said as she got another snowball ready. Rowen watched from afar at how Kento and Sage were sitting and realized if Sage were to move out of the way Kento would be hit again. Just as Rowen finished his thought a snowball went falling at Sage and as he predicted he jumped out the way and Kento was hit AGAIN.   
"This is not fair!" Kento yelled and Rowen laughed. Kento shot a glare at him. "So you think this is funny!" Kento grabbed some snow and chucked it at Rowen. Rowen moved just enough for it to hit his chest plate instead of his face.   
Kento got an angry face, then went down to get more snow. When he was hit in the back of his head he whirled around to see who threw it and was surprised to see Cye standing there and he had another snowball ready. Cye was looking straight at Sage, who was having a snowball fight with Chi Chi. Cye threw it hard, hitting Sage across his right cheek. Sage just stared at him and Chi Chi saw her opening! She threw the snowball as hard as she could. Sage turned around just in time to get it square in the face, HARD! Sage was totally taken aback by this that he fell back right on his butt!   
"HEY! Two against one, that's not fair!" Sage desperately tried to defend himself. Kento just laughed. But before anyone could say another word Sage was AGAIN hit! This time on his left cheek.   
"Oh, but Sage, my dear, all is fair in love and WAR!" Brittney said, standing there with another snowball ready to go!   
Sage's eyes widened, "You have got to be kidding me!" Kento, Rowen and Cye all started laughing!   
"Oh, no! Sage, you of ALL people should know I DON'T 'kid' around." With that said she threw the snowball (that she was holding) at him. Sage ducked and it only skimmed his head. Soon it was an all-out snowball fight, everybody. With the exception of Kat and Ryo, everyone was throwing them in any direction they could find.   
*****   
Kit sat reading a magazine while Ally played with the many toys. They had finally relaxed a little. They figured being miserable wasn't helping. She was reading a magazine called Teenage Life; she had found an article in it called "GUYS!" It fit ALL the guys perfectly! Ally was playing with a white tiger, a green tiger, a purple tiger, and a plain orange tiger. Kit smiled up at her. She was so cute.   
She stared reading again. Kit sighed and thought to herself, Are they going to come for us? What is taking them so long? Is Ryo all right? Are they reunited? Is Kat okay? All these thoughts just kept running through her head. She could not get rid of them no matter how hard she tried. She looked back at Ally to see she had all the other tigers attacking the white one. Fear shot though her; these questions of doubt in Ryo and the team, were they coming from the stuff? "ALLY! What are you doing? Sweetie?"  
Ally looked up, "Nuttin', just playing."   
"Why are all the other tigers attacking the white one?"   
"Oh, the white one is White Blaze, and they aren't attacking it, they're hugging him, or pouncing him. You wanna know why? Because it's his birthday and they threw a surprise party for him!" Ally giggled.   
Kit sighed in relief. "Oh, really, is that so?"   
"Yeah, you wanna know what else? Ryo set it all up! Because Ryo and him are BEST friends. And he loves him. Did you know that they've been friends since they were little kids! Kinda like us, right, Kit?"   
"Yeah, just like us!" Kit smiled at her. Ally giggled and continued playing.   
*****   
Daller sat in the Dynasty version of a dojo. He watched as Alex and Ryan sparred. Daller was very pissed; THIS Derek just comes and takes control. Master Trots hadn't even called him to see her! And he doubted very much that either Alex nor Ryan had been called down. It pissed him off so much that this pretty boy could just come in and take control. Daller doubted that he even knew what he was dealing with! The Ronins weren't common enemies, they were powerful, and they're powerful on their own, but now they have the 'nature girls' and the 'cousins' too; it was too much, of course they were going to fail at first! But they could WIN! They could he knew they could!   
He looked back up at the sparring as Alex finish Ryan off by giving him an upper cut. Daller stood up and approached the two. "Okay, you two, if want our places back we have to work harder, get stronger, and we have to study the Ronins, so we know their weakness and their strengths!"   
Alex wiped some sweat off of his brow. "How? How can we find out their weakness?"   
"Well, we'll start with the obvious, Wildfire is strong in fire, weak in water and cold, and so on; after that we'll study the scrolls that were left from their war with Talpa," Daller said, then slammed his fist into the wall. "WE WILL GET OUR PLACES BACK!"   
Ryan stood up. "I'll gather the information first, I'm the fastest reader. I can get the information fast and get to the training."   
Alex looked at Daller and Ryan. "This won't be easy, if we want to match that pretty boy Derek we'll have to work hard!" The other two nodded.   
*****   
Cye stood over the fire, cooking as fast as he could. He could hear yell and shouts of anger coming from Rowen and Sage. He heard grunts come from Kento as he tried to get away.   
"CYE! Hurry up! We can't hold him forEVER!" Sage yelled at him.   
"I'm cooking as fast as I can! Just hold him back a little longer!"   
"We are, but he hasn't eaten in almost four hours! He's freakin' out on us!" Rowen yelled with his voice a little strained.   
Tina looked at the scene in front of them. She turned to Brittney. "Do you think they do this a lot?"   
"Well, they look like they're used to it! Ahh, well, I hope they don't do this a lot. I mean, if I'm going to be Sage's girl." She paused and sighed. "I am going to need SOME peace and quiet." Both girls looked at each other, then at the boys in front of them; they sighed and hung their heads.   
Chi Chi came jogging up she looked at the three boys in front of her, raised her eyebrow and shook her head. She then turned to Brittney and Tina. "Hey, did Kat or Ryo tell either of you when they'd be back?" Chi Chi asked.   
"Ahh, well, all Kat told me was that SHE would be back by lunch, at the latest," Brittney informed her.  
"Okay, thanks." Chi Chi looked at the boys one more time then walked away.   
"Lunch's READY!" Cye yell, then heard Sage and Rowen scream as Kento ran right through them. Cye didn't think a train going full speed could stop Kento when he was hungry. Soon everyone sat down; they got their plates. Cye was about to serve everyone when he realized Kento was already on his second plate of food and about to start on his third, but Cye stopped him.   
"WAIT!" Cye said, holding his hands back. Kento glared but stopped eating for a while or at least until everyone got first helpings.   
"Hey, guys," Ryo said; walking up a couple paces behind him was Kat, who was watching the ground.   
"Hey, Ryo! You have got to try this food, man, it is so GOOD!" Kento yelled.   
"I'll have to take your word on that one," Ryo said, pointing at him.   
"Oh, come on, try it!" Kento yelled back.   
"I would, but you just ate the last of it," Ryo pointed out to him. Kento froze and did a cheesy smile. Ryo shook his head. "That's okay, Kento, I'm not really all that hungry."   
Rowen looked at Kat. "Hey, Kat!" That startled Kat out of her trance, she looked at him. Rowen sighed, then continued, "If you are hungry, you can have the rest of mine, I'm finished." Rowen offered it to her.   
"That's okay, Rowen, I'm not really hungry. I think I'll just go to bed," Kat said in a very quite voice. Kat walked to her tent and went in.   
"Okay, well, Rowen if you aren't going to finish..."   
"Go ahead, Kento." Rowen sighed, "Ryo can I talk to you?"   
Ryo's eyes went a little wide then went back to normal. "I'd rather not," Ryo confessed   
"Okay, Ryo, let's talk RIGHT now. That's a command, not a request," Rowen said, standing up. Sage's eyebrow went up at Rowen's words. Everyone remained quiet.   
Ryo looked at him, then mumbled, "And here I thought I gave the orders," then turned to leave, Rowen glared at him. Rowen didn't know what had happened but he knew Ryo said something he shouldn't have. And he was pissed about it!   
Ryo sighed again then started walking towards the woods, then he saw something flicker. He looked more closely.   
"YO, RYO, TALK NOW!" Rowen yelled, startling Ryo out of his trance. Rowen was getting really pissed for no reason; it was like he just had this sudden anger for Ryo, for really no reason at all.   
"Yeah, sure, sorry." Ryo started to follow Rowen again but then he saw the flicker again, his head jerked around.   
"Ryo, what is it?" Sage asked, seeing his expression. Ryo stared for a few more seconds, then figured he was just seeing things.  
"Nuthin', nothing at all!" Ryo shook it off.   
Rowen glared, he figured he was just stalling; whatever happened out there Ryo didn't want to share. Or at least that's what he thinks. "Good, I'm glad there's nothing out there, can we go now?"   
"Yeah, sure..."   
"Hold up," Sage said, bringing his hands up. "Guys, we ARE in the Dynasty, if you guys forgot; Ryo, if you saw something we need to know!" They all looked at Ryo; Rowen just looked irritated.  
"Ahhh, it was probably just the sun playing a trick on me with the snow," he said, shaking his head.  
"WHAT-WAS-IT?!" Rowen practically yelled.  
"It was a flicker, all right?" Ryo's face also showed irritation.   
"Great, you're seeing flickers! Our leader is seeing flickers, we're in great hands now!" Rowen yelled, throwing his hands up in the air.   
"ROWEN, cool it, what has crawled up your ass and died!" Kento yelled, trying to defend his leader and friend.   
Rowen glared at him. "So, Ryo, you can't talk on your own; oh, wait, that can't be true cause you sure said something to Kat," he said, pointing to her tent.   
"Look, Rowen, I didn't say anything bad to Kat, I pointed out her flaws, and the good points! All right?" Ryo said, looking at him with a questioning look.   
*****   
Derek sat by Trots watching the Ronins fight, or more like Strata and Wildfire fight and the others try to clam it down. Earlier he had had a spirit make a potion that would temporarily make Strata get extremely mad at Wildfire for no reason. They had to wait for the right time to give it to him so it didn't look like the Dynasty was behind it. But unfortunately Wildfire had noticed the flicker that sent the potion into Strata's mind. But luckily Strata blew it off as a stunt to make it so he wouldn't have to talk to him.   
Truth be told, Wildfire was very kind to Forest; he could have been a lot meaner. But just for fun, they made Forest tired so she would look sad and upset.   
*****   
Rowen had just started yelling at Ryo about nothing; Sage couldn't believe his ears. What had Ryo done that was so bad?  
"You know what, Ryo, Kat was right, you don't belong as our leader!" Rowen yelled.  
"Rowen, what DID I do that made you so mad? I talked to Kat, I wasn't cruel or rude or whatever you want to call it!"   
"BS, YOU PROBABLY CHASED HER AWAY JUST LIKE YOU CHASED YOUR PARENTS AWAY!" Rowen yelled; Ryo just froze, Rowen had just told him that he had not only caused it but made them do it! Ryo couldn't even talk, he was completely speechless.  
Kento, on the other hand, was not! "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Kento screamed! "HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY CALL YOURSELF HIS FRIEND!"   
"I'm NOT! This 'JERK' doesn't deserve any friends, not after he killed his own parents!" As soon as these words left Rowen's mouth, then Kento punched him square across the face. And Ryo ran, he just ran; he knew if he stayed there he would end up doing more than just punching him across the face.   
*****   
Derek sighed; now it was his turn to finally get ride of that 'WILDFIRE' once and for all. He got up, bowed to Trots, then made up some stupid reason why he had to leave. Just as he was about to leave the room, he said a tiny spell that would make Trots see Wildfire just fine even though he was about to die! Then he would come back, get rid of Trots, and claim the throne and his future wife. Then and only then would he get rid of the other Ronins and the annoying girls; he figured he'd keep Forest and Flower alive for his soon-to-be wife.   
He smiled evilly, then left the room. He would head to the dojo first to pick up some weapons, then grab a sandwich so when he appeared to Wildfire, he would look relaxed, and calm. It always helped the mood. He snickered to himself, thinking how he would kill that bastard!   
*****   
Ryo just ran, he couldn't do anything but run! His mind raced like a mad cow; all that went through it, though, was 'why'? Why would he do this to him? Why would he say those things? Did he really mean it? Why was he so mad? Is what he said true? But mostly just WHY!   
He didn't know how long he had ran when he finally just fall to the ground from the running, and from the tears that flowed down his cheeks freely. He gasped for breath as he sobbed; Ryo didn't like crying but it was something he sometimes did. But this was different! Every other time things seemed too hopeless to continue he had his friends to turn to, but now! Ryo hit the ground with his fits. Ryo felt helpless, which was something he didn't feel often.   
"Hello, Wildfire," Derek laughed and took a bite of the sandwich he had grabbed.  
"Derek?" Ryo just stared.   
Derek laughed again, then threw the sandwich over his shoulder. "Well, did you honestly think we were just going to let you run off like that without us watching?"   
That's when it hit Ryo. "YOU! You put a spell on Rowen, didn't you?" Ryo stood up and looked at him, then wondered how he could have been so dumb to think that Rowen would say that of his own will.   
Derek laughed, "Wow, you figured it out. Too bad you did it too late! For now you are out here alone, tired and with positively no help! I wish you luck!" With that said, Derek charged at him. Ryo had no time to react, he didn't have any time to even dodge the attack, let alone put on his full armor. Derek knocked him aside like a ragdoll.   
Ryo slowly pulled himself up. He could hear Derek laughing, this pissed Ryo off. Not only had he played a cheap trick on him with Rowen, but then he comes to him when he's upset! AND THEN LAUGHS AT HIM! Ha, no, this was not going to work, not at all!   
Ryo jumped up, got in a fighting stance, then put his armor on. "ARMOR OF THE WILDFIRE, DAO CHI!" Ryo's eyes had fire swirling in them. "You are going down," he said, pointing to Derek with his swords.   
Derek laughed again, "Bring it on; you know it's a shame, really, that Strata well never be able to say he's sorry?"   
"Yeah, and what's that supposed to mean?" Ryo said, getting in a more fighting stance. Ready for whatever he was going to pull.   
"Well, the spell will wear out in about five more minutes. But by the time they find you, you'll be dead!" Derek lunged at him, but this time Ryo was ready. Ryo jumped up and slammed the hilt of one of his twin katanas into his back. Derek landed on his stomach as Ryo landed on both feet with ease, still watching Derek's every movement.   
Derek growled, then jumped up and immediately charged Ryo again. Ryo again jumped out of the way Ryo grabbed a tree branch and pulled himself up, jumping up into the trees. Derek immediately followed, jumping from branch to branch, looking for Wildfire. He finally stopped, then just looked around, searching for something, any kind of signs of Wildfire, a hint of red, a branch moving, ANYTHING! But there was nothing.   
But then he heard a snap of a branch below. AND THERE WAS WILDFIRE! He was on the ground running towards camp. He was already almost out of sight!   
Derek growled, THIS was not what he thought he would do! He was supposed to stay there and fight, not run back to camp! HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ALWAYS READY TO FIGHT, HE WASN'T SUPPOSE TO ANALYZE THINGS LIKE HALO and STRATA DID, OR EVEN LIKE TORRENT! Derek jumped down to the ground and started running after Wildfire; if he got back to camp his whole plan would be ruined!   
Ryo knew Derek was probably on his tail by now, but he had to keep running, the closer he got to camp the better his odds were. Normally he would have stayed and fought, like he had to prove that he was the best. But over the time he had spent with the guys he had LEARNED that you don't always have to be the best. He just really hoped that by the time he got there that the spell that was on Rowen was gone! Otherwise he might have two people trying to kill him.   
*****   
Kento had to be dragged away from Rowen as he pounded into him; Sage and Cye held him back. Kat had come out of the tent and was watching the whole thing. Cye turned to all of the girls. "Maybe you girls better go for a walk or something." The girls all nodded then left; they started jogging, then started laughing and running. White Blaze followed them.   
Cye then put all his strength into holding Kento back form Rowen; Rowen stood up and wiped some blood from his lip. "HOW? HOW CAN... HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY SAY THOSE THINGS TO HIM!" Kento yelled, trying to pull away from Sage and Cye.   
Cye turned to Sage. "I'm almost willing to let him go," Cye said, then glared at Rowen.   
Rowen was about to say something when HE saw a flicker, then it disappeared; as soon as the flicker was gone, Rowen's head started pounding! He went down to one knee and held his head in both hands. He slammed his eyes shut, and moaned in pain, it felt like his head was about to explode! Rowen felt hands go around him, he tried to bring his head up. But it hurt too much, he tried to block the pain out. He could hear what sounded like Sage but it was muffled. He forced his eyes open, it was all blurry; he shut them again then opened them, trying to clear them.   
"Rowen, can you hear me?" Sage asked again. His voice was full of concern. Rowen made no response. He just held his head and moaned in pain. Sage looked at Kento and Cye, they were both just staring.   
"What happened?" Kento asked. Sage shrugged his shoulders.   
"If I have my guess I'd say it's Trots," Cye told him.   
Kento looked at Rowen. Something then crossed his mind. "Hey, what if it was Trots that made Rowen say those things?"   
Sage and Cye stared at Kento. Sage looked at Rowen, then Sage's head shot up. "Wait! If Trots planned this out that would mean Ryo's..." Everyone went silent.   
"We got to find him!" Cye said, looking at the way Ryo had run.   
*****   
Ryo figured he was almost halfway there, he had no idea he had run this far away from camp before. He knew Derek was getting closer, he could now hear his feet patting against the ground. Ryo wasn't sure if he could make it back to camp before Derek caught up with him, but he sure had to try.   
Derek ran behind Wildfire, he was almost caught up to him. Then he could finally get rid of him once and for all. He could clearly see Wildfire. That chicken can't fight for himself! Derek thought to himself. Derek also knew Ryo would never make it back to camp in time. Derek smiled as he jumped and pounced on Wildfire. They rolled a couple feet then stopped. Derek immediately started punching him, wherever he could find a weak point in the armor. Ryo's face was his main target.   
Ryo desperately tried to get his face mask down to protect his face but the punches were too close together, and he couldn't get it down. Ryo felt himself starting to black out, he tried desperately to stay awake. Ryo knew if he fell asleep he would die, as did Derek!   
Derek jumped up, got out his sword, and prepared to slam it into Wildfire. Just as he was about to plunge it into him, something white pounced on him. Ryo slowly got he figured he see White Blaze standing there, but when he looked up, it wasn't White Blaze. Ryo stared at this white thing; it was the size of a lion or of a panther, the only problem was that it was pure WHITE! No spots no stripes, no nothing! In fact, it looked a lot like a panther or lion, because it had the same ears and nose, and tail of a panther or lion; he wondered what it was, how it was white. The white 'cat' then jumped into the trees, and was soon out of sight.   
Ryo put his attention back to Derek who was on the ground cursing. Ryo took his chance to get away. He jumped up and started running back to camp. Ryo was surprised when Derek didn't follow, but he kept on running just in case.   
Ryo reached camp soon, then collapsed as soon as he saw the guys Sage and Kento ran to his side. Cye stayed with Rowen whose headache had gone down but was still there.   
"I'm all right, Sage," Ryo told Sage, who was looking over the bruises on his face. "How's Rowen?"   
"He's okay," Kento told him. "But Ryo, it wasn't him that said..."   
"I know!" Ryo said. "I know." 


	12. Chapter 10 part 1

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Chapter Ten   
Ryo sat in his subarmor leaning against a tree. He hadn't told the guys about the white panther; he thought that they might thing he was insane. Just then Kento burst through the bushes with Rowen right on his tail, Kento turned around and threw a kick at Rowen, who easily dodged it. Rowen jumped into the air and went behind Kento, and used his momentum to push Kento down. Ryo watched in amusement as the two boys sparred; Kento was trying to use his strength on Rowen, but Rowen had sped on his side. Kento flipped up and got into a fighting stance.   
"Don't you give up yet?" Rowen asked, but Ryo could tell he enjoying beating Kento into a pulp. But Ryo also knew that Kento would catch Rowen and when he did, Rowen would be sorry.   
"Me, give up? Huh, that'll be the day!" Kento smirked, then charged. Rowen dodged it, but Kento was ready this time; he turned just as Rowen came down, then swiped his feet from under him. Then he brought his fist down and stopped just inches from his face. Rowen was dumbfounded for a moment. Kento stayed in his position; all was quiet for a couple of seconds. Then Ryo started cracking up. They both looked at him.   
"That was great!" Ryo got out through his laughs. Kento looked at Rowen and they both smiled. Kento stood up and helped Rowen up. Then they walked towards Ryo. Ryo's eyebrow went up. "Oh, is that how it's going to be? Two against one?" Ryo stood up.  
"What's the matter, Ryo? Don't think you're up to it?" Rowen asked, still walking towards him with Kento walking right behind him.   
"Oh, no, I know I can beat you two; I was just going to give you the chance to turn back," Ryo said.   
Kento and Rowen looked at each other, then they cracked their knuckles and ran towards him. Ryo jumped back just as Rowen made it there. Ryo jumped into the trees; once Ryo got to the top he looked around. But then he saw it, the white panther that had saved his life. But before he got a good look at it, he was knocked down by a blur of orange. He landed on the ground with a thump, and Kento landed right on top of him. Ryo could hear Rowen laughing his head off. Ryo looked at Kento, who was smiling.   
"Yeah, yeah, get off!" Ryo yelled at Kento. Kento smiled even bigger but got off; he then pulled Ryo up. Once Ryo was up he jumped into the trees again, leaving a very puzzled Kento and Rowen.   
Ryo got to the top of the tree and again looked around, but this time he saw no white panther.   
"Hey, Ryo! What ARE you doing?" Rowen yelled up to him.  
Ryo took one last look around, then jumped down. "Nothing, just thought I saw something."   
"Ryo, the last time you thought you saw something, I nearly killed you! What did you see?" Rowen asked.  
"It was nothing, at least nothing dangerous," Ryo finished.  
"Are you sure?" Kento asked again.  
"Yes, I'm very sure, Kento. Don't worry about it, okay?" Ryo said again, trying to enforce it.   
"Okay," Rowen and Kento both said.  
"Good." Ryo started to walk away but then turned around. "Ya know, I would've beat ya, IF I hadn't been distracted." Ryo again started to walk away but with a huge smile on his face. Kento and Rowen again looked at each other, then started after Ryo.   
Ryo laughed and started running, but then the sun was covered by a dark cloud. They all stopped running. They stood totally silent, just listening, and waiting. Thunder started sounding, then came lightning. Then a drop of rain fell, and where it touched the snow melted and under that the grass died.   
"It's POISON!" Ryo yelled, and they ran for cover. They found shelter in a cave nearby. And it wasn't long after that the poison rain started coming down extremely hard.   
"Looks like we'll be here for a while," Kento said, sitting down.  
"This is very bad!" Rowen said, looking out of the cave.   
"Damn! I just hope the others found shelter," Ryo said, shaking his head. Rowen looked at Kento, then went and sat down beside him.   
"What's the matter, Ronins? Don't like MY rain?" Alex came out of the bushes holding his hands out, then licked his hand. "Mmmm, it's good; why don't you come out here and try it?" Alex laughed.  
"That's okay, I think we'll just stay in here, if that's okay with you," Ryo told him.  
"Really? Well, it's not okay." Alex pulled out a sword.   
Ryo realized what was about to happen, then turned to Sage and Kento. "PUT YOUR ARMOR ON NOW!" Ryo yelled at them. "ARMOR OF WILDFIRE!"   
"ARMOR OF THE STRATA!"   
"ARMOR OF THE HARDROCK!" Just as they got on their helmets, Alex slashed down the cave and the three Ronins were left in the poison rain.   
"Ha, those armors of yours won't help you for long, this rain will eat right through them!" Alex laughed loudly; Ryo gritted his teeth, he knew this would have to be fast so they could find shelter again.   
"Go! Leave me, I'll take him!" Ryo yelled at them.  
"Ryo, there's no way..." Rowen started.   
"GO! That's an order! Find some shelter! I'll find you later!" Ryo stared at them; Kento looked at Rowen, but they stood their ground. Ryo's face hardened. "When you became Ronin Warriors you took an oath that said you'd listen and obey my orders unless I was not myself! NOW GO!" Ryo screamed. Kento gritted his teeth but turned to leave; Rowen followed and they ran off.   
Alex laughed. "That was a stupid thing to do, Wildfire! You know as well as I do that you can't beat me and still have time to find shelter! You just killed yourself. Why?" Alex asked.  
"I won't put my team in this kind of danger, if I can help it!"   
"But did they not also know when they joined the Ronin Warriors that it would be 'dangerous'?" Alex tilted his head to one side.  
"Yes, but I'll try my best as a friend and a leader to keep them alive so they can destroy you once and for ALL!" Ryo told him, then jumped up and brought down his sword. Alex jumped back just seconds before Ryo hit. Ryo jumped up again and charged; Alex dodged all of his attacks. But Alex never attacked Ryo, he simply dodged, like he really didn't care. Ryo knew he was just stalling, though. Waiting for the rain to burn through his armor. But there was nothing Ryo could do except try to beat him.   
Ryo then stopped dead in his tracks and grabbed his shoulder. Alex started laughing. "So it's made it through; it burns, doesn't it?" Ryo went down to one knee and gritted his teeth as it continued to burn all over his body. He tried hard not to scream; he didn't want to give that Dynasty freak the pleasure of it. He slammed his eyes shut; he tried to focus on something else, anything else, but he couldn't. He could hear Alex laughing; Ryo made himself get up. He gripped his swords and started stumbling over to Alex.   
"Well, you are stronger than I thought," Alex laughed. "Are you still going to try to fight me?"   
"I... shall... fight... you... tell... the... day... I... DIE!" Ryo got out through gasps.  
"Which isn't that far away. Is it?" Alex pushed him down. "No one to save you, for anyone who's out here shall be facing the same fate you are. FOR I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN STAND IN THIS RAIN!" Alex started laughing again.  
"Wrong!" Alex whirled around to see Derek standing there. "Master Trots won't be happy to hear you're trying to kill him." Derek pointed to Ryo, who was shaking on the ground. "I suggest you report back to the castle right now and I won't tell Master Trots about this." Derek smiled; Alex sighed and glared, but disappeared. Derek smiled, turned to Ryo and waved goodbye, then said, "So long," then disappeared.   
Ryo felt like his body was burning up, something he thought he'd never have to feel with his armor. He tried to get up but his body wouldn't allow it. He just laid there. "So, this is how it's going to end, huh? Well, I never thought it would end like this..." But before Ryo could think about anything else he heard a roar; Ryo already knew it wasn't White Blaze, the roar was higher-pitched than White Blaze's was, and it also wasn't as loud as White Blaze's was either.   
Before he could think of anything else, the white panther appeared. Ryo stared at it; the rain just went around it like it was in a bubble. The panther or lion came and stood over him; the bubble that surrounded the panther also went around him. Ryo breathed a sigh of relief when the pain stopped. He looked at the panther; from the view he was at he could now tell it was a female. Ryo started to doze off but before he did he whispered, "Thank you"' to the panther, then blacked out. The panther looked down at him as his armor went down to his subarmor.   
*****   
Kento and Rowen paced in a cave; both of them kept looking out into that rain. Kento punched the cave wall. "WHAT WERE WE THINKING? HOW COULD WE HAVE LEFT HIM!" Kento again punched the wall.   
"That... that jerk didn't give as a choice. You know we took an 'oath'." Rowen turned around again. "DAMN! If he does survive I'll KILL him myself!" Rowen paced some more.  
"Well, you stop pacing! You are driving me crazy!" Kento yelled. Rowen looked at him but then sat down. Rowen then put his head in his hands.   
"AHhh," Rowen said as he pounded the ground. He then turned to Kento, who was watching him. "You think he found shelter?" Rowen asked.  
"I hope so." Kento didn't even look at Rowen, he just stared at the rain, and how everything outside was either dead or dying. "So, you think the others found shelter?"   
Rowen continued to look at the rain as well. "Don't know, I was kinda hoping it didn't hit them." Rowen turned to Kento "Do you think the rain went that far over?"   
Kento turned to Rowen. "I guess that depends on what Alex wanted to do. I hope he just wanted to get us, and didn't go near the guys, I really hope." Kento turned back towards the rain. His eyes widened, as did Rowen's, as the rain started slowing down until it completely stopped. Both of them ran out of the cave, and towards where they left Ryo.   
*****   
Ryo woke feeling something wet against his face; he opened his eyes to see the white panther in front of him. Ryo pushed the cat away, as he did with White Blaze, but it came right back. Ryo stared at it. "What do you want?" he asked the cat. The panther nudged at him, trying to get him to sit up. Ryo slowly sat up; he was about to fall back down but the panther put her nose on his chest and pushed him up, so he was sitting on his knees. The panther then put one of its paws on Ryo's knee, then lifted itself up so she was above his head.   
Ryo's eyes got big. "What is she doing?" The panther lowered her head so she looked like she was going to bite him, but then gently took something out of his hair. The panther lowered herself back down and dropped a stick on the ground. Ryo looked at the stick, then at the panther; he was totally puzzled.   
"What, it's a twig? You've got some too," Ryo said, taking a stick out of the panther's fur. The panther looked at the twig, sniffed it, then snorted. She then turned back to the one that was in his hair; she growled, then stomped on it. As soon as it broke a dark cloud rose from it. Ryo's eyes went big. "What was that?" Ryo asked the panther, then laughed to himself. "Now I'm talking to a cat, that I don't even know what it is. Tell me, are you a lion or a panther?" Ryo laughed, then patted the cat on its head. The cat stood up and scratched, she then shook her whole body, ruffling her fur. She looked back at Ryo one last time before she ran off. Ryo watched her run off.   
"Ryo! Ryo!" Rowen yelled, with his bow and arrow out.  
"Ryo! Oh man, please be alive! Ryo!" Kento yelled out.  
Ryo weakly yelled out, "Over here!" Kento and Rowen both ran over to him.  
"How did you live through that rain?" Kento asked.  
"I got some help," Ryo said, looking at where the panther had run off to. He had decided it was a panther, just for the fact that he hated lions.   
"By who?" Rowen asked as he stepped closer to Ryo and kneeled down. "Can you stand?"   
"I think so." Ryo started to stand up, but his legs buckled and he started to fall, but Kento caught him and picked him up. Ryo tried to push out of his arms.  
"Don't give me that, Ryo, I'm pissed enough at you. DON'T PUSH I! You can't walk and I'm not going to wait three hours for you to feel up to it," Kento said and started to walk. Ryo stopped struggling. Ryo sighed, then relaxed as Kento started a light trot towards camp with Rowen coming right up beside him. Ryo soon found himself dozing off, until he finally just fell asleep in Kento's arms.   
About ten minutes later, Kento and Rowen stopped, and looked around. It had snow on the ground, and for the most part everything was still alive. "Well, I guess that means the others are still okay," Rowen said, looking around.   
"Yeah, thank goodness." Kento shifted Ryo's weight around a little.   
Rowen looked at him. "You want me to take him for a while?" Rowen asked him.   
Kento raised an eyebrow. "Please, I'm the warrior of strength! I'm fine," Kento told him. "Come on, the others must be worried by now."   
Rowen nodded. "Yeah." They both started off again, oblivious to the pair of panther eyes watching them from afar. The panther's eyes stayed on Ryo the whole time. As soon as Rowen and Kento started moving again, the panther jumped down from the tree's. She sniffed a little, then walked in the opposite direction.   
*****   
"Okay, where are they? I think we should go look for them!" Sage told Cye. "You girls stay here in case they come back."   
"No, there are more girls here than guys; you guys stay here, we'll go look for them. And Sage, if they do show up, tell Rowen to shoot an arrow up and we'll come back," Kat told them. Sage was about to argue but Kat held up a hand. "We're leaving, let's go." The other girls followed Kat as they left.   
Sage looked at White Blaze sleeping. What's wrong with that tiger, it's like he doesn't even care about Ryo anymore! First Yesterday when Rowen almost killed him! Then White Blaze didn't even follow Ryo when he ran off. They've always been the closest of friends, what changed? Sage frowned at his thoughts. He then looked at Cye. "Looks as if we aren't in charge anymore. What happened?" Sage asked, and Cye shrugged his shoulders.   
Sage and Cye started talking about various things. A couple minutes later they heard the patting of feet coming closer; they both stood up, and waited for whatever it was to get there. Soon Rowen emerged, followed by Kento holding a sleeping Ryo.   
"What happened, is he all right?" Cye yelled at them.  
"Hey, calm down, buddy, he's fine, just tired. He had a hard day," Kento told him.   
"Here, I'll put him in our tent," Rowen said as he took Ryo from Kento and walked over to their tent.   
"What happened?" Sage asked.   
"Huh! Alex is back and even more powerful. I don't even want to see Daller and Ryan."   
"That bad; what he do?" Sage asked.  
"Let's just say Sekhmet isn't the only poison warlord," Kento said, leaning against a tree.  
"Great! The new warlords are getting the same powers as the old ones! I just can't wait to see who has the same power as Dais, that'll be lot's of fun," Cye said, looking up, remembering the fights they had with the warlords. He grimaced just as Rowen came out of the tent.   
Sage looked at Rowen. "Oh, Rowen, I almost forgot! Shoot an arrow up in the air so the girls know to come back."   
Rowen nodded his head; he pulled an arrow out, strung it, and shot it straight up into the air. He fired two more arrows into the air.   
"So, Ryo's okay, right? What happened?" Sage asked.  
"Ryo's a jerk," Kento said simply. Cye and Sage looked at him with confusion in their eyes.   
"Why?" Sage asked.   
Rowen stepped up. "Why? Why? Okay, think about this, if you will. You're sparring, then some warlord comes up and tells you if you stay in this rain he made that you'll die, but he ruined your shelter. The only chance you have is to beat him and then find shelter again. BUT THEN your leader and best friend tells you to run AWAY and let him handle it! And you knows there's no chance if he tries to do it by himself, but he throws in your face that you have to obey him, with the oath we took when we became Ronins, and you have to leave him. Knowing he'll die," Rowen said, glaring at the ground.   
Sage sighed and pursed his lips in a frown. "He did that? So how'd he survive?"   
"Don't know, he said he got help, but that's all he said," Kento told them, tossing a rock into the air.  
Everyone was silent for a moment, then a thought crossed Cye's mind. "You think it was Kayura?" Cye asked with his right eyebrow lifted a little.   
"I dunno, maybe, I thought about that myself, but I don't think so. It was just the way he said it." Kento shook his head. "I don't think it was Kayura, OR the Warlords."   
Cye looked at Kento. "Then who?" Cye asked.  
"I dunno," Kento said, shrugging his shoulders, "how should I know?"   
"WAIT!" Rowen turned to Kento. "Kento, do you remember when we were sparring with Ryo and he went into the trees?" Rowen waited for Kento to nod. When he did, he continued, "Well, wasn't he looking at something up there?"   
"HEY! You're right, and then he was in a hurry to get back up there. I wonder what it was." Kento looked up at the sky.  
Sage looked at Cye; he stepped closer to him and whispered, "Do you know what they're talking about?" Cye shook his head.   
"It's something that happened earlier," Kento said, shaking his hands around.  
Rowen looked at the tent that Ryo was in. "I wonder what happened after we left," Rowen said to no one in particular.   
*****   
Daller, Alex, and Ryan sat in a room that was completely dark except for a few candles spread across the room. Daller threw a sword across the room. He then turned to Alex. "You lost! How could you lose!"   
"I didn't lose, Daller," Alex said calmly while using a dagger as a toothpick.   
"Yeah? And how do you figure that one?!" Daller yelled. Ryan started at his two fighting comrades; he leaned back and relaxed.   
"What you and they don't know is, that rain that poured on them does more than burn them." Ryan sat up and Daller moved closer; Alex continued. "You see, once the rain started to burn Wildfire's skin, he became trapped. He is now my personal dummy."   
"How do you figure? Does that mean you can make him join our side?" Ryan asked.  
"No, not yet, anyway, he is still too strong. But later, once I wear him down a little... probably," Alex told them.  
"Well, what good does that do for us NOW?" Daller asked, throwing his arms into the air.   
"I shall show you! Ryan, would you please go down and start a fight with the Ronins?" Ryan nodded then disappeared.  
Alex walked over to one of the walls in the room; he motioned Daller to follow. Daller rolled his eyes but followed nonetheless. Alex threw this powder on the wall, and the wall became black and dark, then it flashed! Daller turned his head away from the light. Alex smiled, then cleared his throat to get Daller's attention. Daller turned back around, he looked at the wall and was surprised to see the Ronins' camp! The Ronins were all talking to themselves, but they didn't look happy!   
"What's going on?" Daller asked Alex.   
"Hell if I know! Derek chased me out of there before I could do anymore damage." Alex glared at the wall/Ronin camp. Daller looked at Alex, then started watching the scene in front of him.   
"Where's Ryan? He should have been there by now."   
Alex shrugged his shoulders. "You know, Ryan never goes anywhere too fast." Alex and Daller both did a fake laugh, then continued watching.   
*****   
"Where are the girls? Shouldn't they be here by now?" Kento said, trying to change the subject. He was getting a little tired of talking about how Ryo made them leave, they had gone over it like ten times.   
"How should we know, Kento?" Sage asked him, then continued, "But what were Ryo's exact words when he told you guys to leave?"   
"Well, he said..."   
"COME ON, WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS LIKE A THOUSAND TIMES!" Kento yelled, throwing a rock a Sage's foot. "Are you that stupid you can't get it the first five times!" Sage glared at Kento, and started to move towards him.   
"Come on, guys, we aren't here to fight amongst ourselves. We ARE here to fight and destory the Dynasty! Remember?" Cye said, getting in between the two.   
"Torrent's right, you are here to fight us, are you not?" Ryan said, jumping down from a tree.   
"Why, hello, Ryan, how are you?" Rowen said, a little relieved he'd showed up. It broke the fight up.   
"Peachy! Where's your leader? Or did he try to go out on his own again? WE all know how that works. I do hope he did?" Ryan laughed.  
Kento gritted his teeth together. "SORRY, Ryan, but he didn't! We're a team!" Kento said through clamped teeth.   
"Oh, yes, I can tell! Especially when you boys last fought with Alex. Right!" Ryan laughed, then walked a little closer to them. "Don't you love it? The way your leader leaves you, can't depend on you?" Ryan laughed even harder.   
"HA HA HA," came a bleak laugh; they turned around to see Ryo standing there. "That is so funny," Ryo said with no emotion.   
"Yah, Wildfire, so nice of you to join us," Ryan said with a huge smile on his face.   
"Yeah, I bet!" Ryo stumbed to a tree; Rowen went to help him but Ryo held his hand out, stopping him.   
"You see! He won't even let you help him keep his balance! It's to laugh!" Ryan snickered.  
"It's to laugh? What kind of saying is THAT!" Ryo curled his upper lip, then smiled. "Oh! And, Ryan, what is the reason you came down here? Just to fight? OR is it because Alex thinks he has power over me?" Ryo smiled as Ryan's eyes got as big as a bugs. 


	13. Chapter 10 part 2

Chapter 10  
Part 2  
  
*****   
"What! He knows! How does he know?" Alex screamed.   
"Looks like your fool proof plain didn't work! Did it?" Daller said, crossing his arms.  
"We'll see! We SHALL SEE!" Alex slammed his fists against the wall. He then turned around. "He may know, but that doesn't mean he can stop it!" Daller smiled at these words.   
*****   
Ryo stood, the best he could, against a tree. And he was laughing! Ryan gritted his teeth together, then yelled, "AND JUST WHAT IS SO FUNNY?" Ryo just laughed harder   
"You are! You are quite funny, Ryan!" Ryo said; his right arm started shaking a little but he made it stop before anyone really noticed. Ryo gritted his teeth. Alex, I know you're trying to control me, but it won't work! I'll fight you till the day I die! Ryo thought to himself. I just hope that the day I die isn't that close! Ryo's arm starting shaking again and this time he couldn't stop it. Ryan laughed   
"So I see Alex's little spell worked better than you'd like!" Ryan stopped laughing, then put on a serious face. "NOW you die!" Ryan charged at Ryo; Ryo just stood there! When Sage saw that Ryo wasn't going to move he jumped at Ryan, knocking him down. Ryan gasped as he hit the ground; Sage jumped off of him before Ryan had a chance to get the upper hand. Ryan stood up and Sage took a fighting stance right in front of Ryo. Kento looked at Ryo; he was breathing really heavy and his arm was shaking quite hard. Ryo cradled his shaking arm; he put his head back and gritted his teeth. Kento's eyes narrowed; he HATED to see any of his friends in any kind of pain.   
Ryan looked at Sage, then at Ryo, he then looked at the other Ronins; they were staring at Ryo, most had pity in their eyes, but Hardrock had anger in his eyes. Ryan wondered about this for a second, but then Hardrock charged him. Ryan had no time to react and was soon tackled to the ground; a fist came down on his face that was soon followed by another one.   
Kento punched Ryan madly, with anger filled in his eyes. Sage's eyes were huge he looked back at Ryo, who was standing more upright. His arm had stopped shaking and he had a light smile on his face. Sage looked back at Kento; he had slowed dow a little but not much. Ryan put his feet under Hardrock and pushed him off. Kento went flying backwards, but landed on his feet. Ryan stood up, his head was spinning.   
"I'll... I'll be back!" Ryan disappeared, and Ryo laughed quietly to himself.   
Sage turned around and looked at Ryo. "Okay, Ryo, time to explian! Why did you make Kento and Rowen run off? Why aren't you trusting us? Why is your arm shaking? What was Ryan babbling about? Why...?"   
"SAGE! Slow down! I can only answer one question at a time! MAN!" Ryo was about to continue when a female voice came in.   
"We saw the arrow! Is he all..." Tina stopped in mid-sentence, when she saw Ryo leaning against a tree, waving at her. She put on a cheesy smile. "Ha, hi, Ryo. Were you standing there the whole time?" Tina felt really stupid for not seeing him in the first place. Cye smiled to himself, knowing exacly what she felt like.   
Then came another female voice, one that they had not heard in a while. "Hello, Ronins," came Kayura's kind voice, a voice that kinda scared Rowen. "I have come to talk to the cousins, but I'll start with just Tina." Kayura turned to Tina. "Tina, if you could please follow me."   
Tina looked at Cye; Cye nodded, saying go ahead. So Tina followed Kayura into the trees; Cye watched until they were both out of sight.   
*****   
Kayura walked for about a mile before she turned around and faced Tina. "Tina, I know you've noticed that your power is somewhat slipping?" Kayura smiled as Tina bit back her lip and a tear ran down. Kayura put a hand on Tina's shoulder. "Don't worry, this is happening to Chi Chi and Brittney too."  
Tina's face shot up. "Wh... what, why?!"   
Kayura smiled again. "Because it has to. You three were chosen to hold these powers for a while, then they would be passed on to another."   
"Another? Why? Why didn't this person just take the power in the beginning? WHY did we have to have them, love them! Then lose them? It's not fair," she said in a quiet voice.   
"Because you got your powers when you were born; the powers were tiny, like you, but as you grow they grew. But if you had all the powers in you as they grew, you would go insane. So we took you three girls to hold these powers for a greater use. Yours will go so this 'person' can talk to big cats, or so it says in the scrolls. Chi Chi and Brittney will be going through this too. In fact, Chi Chi's power is almost gone, and Brittney's is leaving her fast. Their powers will go towards this 'person' being able to control her weapon. This weapon is known as the Solar Whip; it is supposed to be the most powerful weapon. The Dynasty will be after this 'person' as soon as they find out the power has surfaced. And this is why I must warn you, if the Dynasty finds out you are losing your powers this person will be in serious trouble! And if we don't find this 'person' first, the world as we know it is doomed!" Kayura finished.  
"Doomed?" Tina shook her head. "If this person is SO powerful, then why can't 'it' just defeat the Dynasty by itself?"  
"Because when this 'person' first gets its powers, it won't know how to use it. This 'person' will be extremely weak, this 'person' will not know how to use these powers or the Solar Whip," Kayura explained.  
"So this 'person' will be able to use all of our powers?" Tina confirmed.   
"No! This 'person' will only be able to talk to big cats and that's all; the others will just be to control the whip, and that's all," Kayura told her. Tina looked confused; Kayura frowned. "Look, all you need to know is that your powers are leaving and they ain't coming back! To put it plainly. All right?"   
Tina put her head down. "They're never coming back?"   
Kayura shook her head. "No, they are gone forever. You are now normal, and your cousins will be too, very soon. But you must understand this has to happen! For the sake of this planet, it was meant to happen! And it is; do not worry, you will learn to get along without them! As will your cousins." Kayura put her hand on Tina's shoulder again. "Now I must go and talk to your cousins; come, we must return to camp."   
Kayura turned and started walking back to camp. Tina just stood there for a moment; she sighed, then followed Kayura back to camp.   
*****   
Derek sat in his room on a chair, he sat starring at his bed where Kit sat with her arms folded, and wore a frown. "Please, talk to me, my dearling. If we are to be wed we must at the least talk," Derek said, standing up.   
"I will NEVER marry you! Not know not ever! I will kill myself before I'll marry you!" Kit spat back.  
"Now, now, you can't kill yourself, I won't have it! Now, I know you will grow to love me in time, once you give me a chance, that is," Derek said and then got right in her face.   
Kit pushed him away. "How can I LIKE someone, let alone love someone who keeps me and my sisters as prisoners, and tries to kill everyone I love?" Kit asked.  
"I do not wish to kill anyone you love." Then Derek grumbled, "Except maybe Wildfire." Kit laughed at this, bringing Derek's attention back to her. "What?" he asked.  
"You are truly threatened by him!" Kit smiled, but then got a sober face.  
"I am threatened by anyone who looks at you!" Derek said.  
"You are not truly evil, are you? I mean, if you changed quite a bit then maybe it would work between us," Kit said, thinking out loud, then clasped her hands over her mouth, realizing what she had said.   
Derek smiled. "It will work, I will change as soon as I'm Emp..."   
"NO! I don't want you to be Emperor. It's too much power and too much temptation to be evil; if even for a moment I don't think you've changed and this is just a trick I'll kill you, I swear I will," Kit tossed back to him.  
"I swear this is no trick, but if I can't be Emperor then at least let me kill Wildfire!" Derek said, and Kit glared at him. "All right so I won't kill him, but I want a promise that you will never look at him the way you used to!" Derek said, pointing a finger at her.   
"I'm not sure how I'm looking at him, but I will try to 'look' at him in a different way, will that work?" Kit asked him.  
"Yes, I suppose." Derek looked down, then back up. "Are you sure I can't just kill him?" Kit slapped him; Derek put his arms up. "All right, all right."   
"Now go free my little sis!" Kit said, pointing.   
*****   
Ryo watched in wonderment as each of the cousins left in high spirit then came back almost in tears; Ryo had no idea what Kayura was telling them but he planned to find out. When finally Brittney came back, he figured that Kayura would leave, but she didn't. She turned to Mariah and said that she had to talk to her! Ryo's eyebrow went up at that. Then his eyes narrowed; he didn't like this, secrets on his team was a bad thing. As Kayura and Mariah left, Ryo followed quietly behind. Ryo didn't know what was going on, but he was going to find out right now!   
Kayura and Mariah stopped by a little lake; Mariah bent down and sat on a rock, she put her fingers on the icy lake. "Mariah, do you have any idea why I asked to talk to you?" Kayura asked her, looking directly in her eyes.   
"No," Mariah said simply, not even bothering to look up.   
Kayura frowned. "Mariah! Please at least look like you're paying attention to me!" Mariah looked up with a start. "Mariah, you have a major choice to make."   
Mariah just looked at Kayura, confused. "What kind of a choice?"   
Kayura sighed. "Mariah, tell me why are you afraid of fire." Kayura's eyes got a cold look to them as she stared at Mariah.   
"Because," Mariah looked around nervously, "because my parents died in a fire!" Mariah's eyes filled with tears.  
Kayura put a hand on Mariah's shoulder, and looked into her eyes. "Mariah, what if I told you that your parents aren't dead?"   
Mariah jumped at that. "What...? What, what do you mean?" Mariah searched Kayura's face for any clues on what she was talking about, but she found none.   
Kayura sighed again. "Mariah, do you remember that night at all?" Kayura asked.  
"Not really," Mariah paused. "I remember being in a cave and hearing screams and seeing fire! Then there was an explosion that knocked me out; when I awoke no one was there! I was alone." Mariah looked down at the snow-covered ground.   
"Mariah, long before you were born the Dynasty was a peaceful place ruled by your people, everyone was happy! But then an evil came into this world and took it over. Your people tried to keep things peaceful, but couldn't. So they went off to their own part of the Dynasty. Now the evil ruler knew that these people had great power, so he left them be but watched them carefully, and that's how it went for many years. But then that evil one died and he son took over; his son was a power hungry monster, he tolerated your people for a while trying to see how much power they really had.   
"No one really took it as much, but about ten years later a child was born that had true power. The evil emperor wanted this child more than anything, so he sent troops out to get it. Your people put up a mighty good fight, though, and fought back; they hid the child in a cave and put a magic shield around the entrance of the cave. They prepared to leave the Dynasty, and take you with. But because of the shield you didn't go with them! It was an accident! But once they were gone they couldn't come back; it was a one way trip, I guess you could say!" Kayura finished off.  
Mariah did an annoyed sigh. "So, what does that mean to me! They're still gone, except this time I find out they left ME!" Mariah stood up and started pacing.  
"They didn't leave you, it was a mistake that they couldn't fix, but I can."   
Mariah looked up at Kayura. "What do you mean?" she asked, staring at her.  
"With this staff," Kayura held up the staff, "I can send you to wherever they went." Kayura sighed as she saw Mariah's face fall, but she put on a small smile. "It is a tough choice: leave the home you've known for years and find a family you do not know, or stay here and never know your true past, your people's past. The choice is yours; I will be back tomorrow night for your answer." Kayura smiled, then tapped her staff and disappeared.   
Mariah turned around and sighed. "Well, you can come out now." Ryo smiled and stepped out. "What do you think I should do?" Mariah asked him.  
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Go; I would give anything to find out my parents weren't dead, and that they never meant to leave me." Ryo looked at Mariah, and grabbed her hands. "Mariah, this may be the only chance you'll ever get; don't let it go, don't you dare let it go! Family is something I've always wanted, and the guys, they try to be my family but it's not the same; I'll never feel the joy of a mother's arms hugging me just 'cause she wants to hug. You know, people take those things for granted but it's something I've always wanted. Now you take your chance to get those things, you understand me!" Ryo finished, looking her right in the eyes.   
Mariah smiled back. "All right! I'll go, but don't forget me, you understand me, don't you forget me."   
"I promise, I will never forget you; why don't we go tell the others?" Ryo smiled at her again.  
"All right! But let me tell them in my own way, kay?" Mariah said.   
*****   
Trots stood in one of the hallways in the castle, pacing. The end is coming! The end of this stupid battle is coming! What shall I do first! I know I'll kill that annoying Kit; Derek is getting to close to her! Trots started to walk down the hall towards the room where Kit and Ally stayed. She busted the door open, only to find no one in there. Derek, she cursed to herself.   
She stormed down the hallways to Derek's room. She swung open the door to find Derek kissing that witch! Derek stood up and stared Trots right in the eye. "How dare you! KISSING the enemy! How low can you go!" Trots spat at him.   
"Well, I'd say the apple doesn't fall far to the ground! MASTER!" Derek said with a slight bow, and a glare.  
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A WAY!" Trots flung her fist at Derek; Derek ducked and then kicked upward into her gut. Trots grabbed her stomach for a second, then regained her pose. "You want to fight? Do you really think you can beat me?" Trots said with a smirk.  
"I know I can! Your power is useless! If you have any. I let you think you were in control, but you never were! Do you think I would really bow down to you for long?" Derek said, standing up.   
Trots started laughing. "Have you forgotten who I am?" Trots looked at Derek for a second, then continued, "My father was one of the most powerful beings ever to walk this Dynasty! He had two children! ME and Talpa, my brother..."   
"Yeah, and it looks like Talpa got all the power! And even he was defeated by the Ronins! Did you really think you could win? Did you honestly think you had control? Ha, you are more stupid than I thought!"   
"Wrong! I was always in charge! But I allowed you to think you were. Talpa had lots of power, but I always had more! But Father said, 'Let your brother think he is better; if he becomes Emperor, GREAT, then he'll get rid of your enemies for you! And when one comes along that he can't beat, you will become Empress and defeat them too. BUT you must always remember to mask your true power! Because you are a girl, your enemies will underestimate you. Remember that.' Yes, he told me that every day! So that's what I did. And now I shall rid myself of you and that brat!" Trots said. She put her hands together, then pulled them apart; a light glow came from them and the glow started to get brighter.   
Derek, seeing what she was about to do, grabbed Kit's arm and transported them elsewhere. "Derek, what was that? What was she doing?" Kit asked.   
"It's a powerful attack; if she can master that attack... she's a lot more powerful than I thought she was." Derek shook his head. "She did that trick like it was nothing. If she can do much more, your friends don't stand a chance." Kit looked down; Derek brushed her cheek. "Come on, she'll be after us soon. We need to get your sister and get out of here." He started to turn, then looked at her again, then sighed. "I'm just glad we hid your sister. Otherwise..."  
Kit put a finger to his lips. "Come on, let's go get my sister." Kit smiled at Derek. She grabbed his hand and they disappeared.   
*****   
Ryo stood in front, Sage and Rowen stood behind him one on each side. Behind them stood Cye and Kento, all in full armor. The girls stood to the side and backed away. Ryo took out his twin katanas, frowned and said, "It ends now!" The other Ronins took out their weapons and shook theire heads in agreement.   
*****   
Daller, Alex, and Ryan stood at the doors of the Dynasty castle; hundreds of Dynasty soldiers were there too, all ready to fight, just waiting for the Ronins to appear. Ryo came over the hill; the other Ronins, and Kat stepped up behind him. The Dynasty soldiers started grumbling. The warlord stood there calmly though. "Should we attack now or wait?" Daller asked.   
Alex looked around. "ATTACK!" As soon as that word left his mouth, then the Dynasty soldiers came running at Ryo.   
Ryo swallowed hard. He turned to the other Ronins and Kat. "Remember, we make a path for the girls to follow; Kat, you try to focus on finding your sisters. Fight strong."   
The first Dynasty soldier came running at Ryo; Ryo slashed right through him. Soon everyone with an armor on was fighting. Ryo turned to the guys, slashing another soldier down as he did. He was going to say one more thing before they got separated. "DON'T BE A HERO!" Ryo shouted over the noise.   
Sage looked up from for a second, then smiled. Take your own advice, Ryo, take your own advice. Sage quickly stopped himself from thinking about other things and started focusing only on the battle. The battle seemed to go on forever. When finally they had killed off enough of the soldiers they saw the new warlords standing there smug, and proud.   
"It's over," Ryo said, pointing one of his twin katanas at Daller.   
"Is it now?" Daller asked, smiling. Ryo was about to respond when he felt a sudden blast hit him in the chest. The Ronins watched as Ryo flew off the ground and landed with a thump. Kento was about to run to his side, but Daller jumped in front of him, blocking his way. Kento started the fight with Daller, and just hoped that Ryo was either okay or that one of the other guys had gotten to him. He pushed at Daller's sword with all his might and Daller was forced to jump back.   
Kento quickly looked around; all the guys were busy with their own fights, Cye was held up with Ryan, and both Rowen and Sage were trying to fight off Alex. Daller came crashing back onto him; Kento only had a second to react. The battle raged on, and every chance he got he looked for Ryo, but never found him.   
Daller slashed his sword under Kento's weapon, and Kento went flying. Kento rammed right into Sage, Sage screamed as he was knocked form his feet. Kento started to get off of Sage but before he could Daller came flying down at him, his sword ready to kill. Kento blocked it with his staff, he could hear Sage groan at the extra wait. There was nothing Kento could do except block.   
Rowen took an arrow, strung it, and shouted, "Arrow Shock Wave!" The arrow hit Alex head on. Alex flew backwards; Rowen knew it wouldn't buy him much time, but he had to help Sage and Kento. Rowen turned around, strung another arrow and again shouted, "Arrow Shock Wave!" The arrow struck Daller just as Alex came running back; Rowen used his bow as a block, and knocked Alex back. Alex frowned and came charging at Rowen head-on.   
Rowen readied himself for the blow, but at the last moment Alex jumped into the air and landed behind him. Alex kicked Rowen down; Rowen lost his bow in the process. Alex raised his sword over his head and then started to send it back down on Rowen. Rowen looked up in fear. He couldn't block or anything. Rowen slammed his eyes shut, waiting for the blow; when it didn't hit he opened his eyes to see Cye standing over him, using his trident to block the sword. Rowen looked around; Kento was now fighting Ryan, and Sage was fighting Daller.  
Cye looked down at Rowen, who was still on the ground. "You want to HELP!" Cye asked and pushed harder against Alex's sword. Rowen nodded; even though Cye was no longer looking, Rowen started to crawl under Cye's legs; he started to stand up but soon saw something red come flying at him. Rowen rolled out of the way to see RYO crouching there, his twin katanas stuck into the ground where Rowen had stood. Everyone stopped fighting. Ryo stood up; his mask was down, so they could not clearly see his eyes.   
Daller started to laugh, "And so it starts." The warlords all jumped back, onto a roof, and watched.   
Sage came forward. "Who are you?" he said in a deep voice.   
"Well, I'm your leader, of course! Or at least I'm in his body, so here's where the choice comes in. I am less powerful in this body and you could probably defeat me, if you combine your powers. But if you defeat me, your leader will also be dead! The choice is yours," Ryo's body said.  
"There's no choice in it! We have to kill him to beat you, or we all die and so does our world!" Cye said with a snarl. "You truly are evil; it is you, isn't it, Trots?"   
"Well, yes, it is. So come, come and kill your leader! Your friend! Your brother of truth! Come. Time waits for no one!" Trots said.  
Sage swallowed hard, he didn't know if he could do it destroy Trots, and destroy Ryo?   
A tear ran down Kento's face. "Come on, you know this is what he'd want us to do, so let's do it." Kento connected his weapon up so it was just a staff. "Iron Rock Crusher!" Kento shouted. Rowen followed, doing his sure kill; soon all the Ronins had done theirs, then came two female voices shouting. Vines and leaves came shooting at Ryo. Sage looked up, the tears ran freely down his face; there stood Kit and Kat. Sage looked back at were Ryo had once stood.   
The dust cloud started to lift; Ryo lay there in his armor, he slowly started to get up. The other Ronins got on guard. He shook as he stood and used one of his katanas as a cane to steady himself.   
"Well, I'll be, I never thought you would really do it, and especially not so soon. You must really want to get rid of Wildfire, don't you," Trots said in a shaking voice.   
"We would never want to even hurt Ryo, but he has trained us to do what we have to do. Never try to be a hero, when putting the whole world in danger," Rowen said, glaring at her/him.   
"Really, well then, come finish me off! If you can," he laughed.   
It sounded so wrong coming from Ryo's voice, Sage thought. "Why do you want us to kill you so quickly? You think you will survive?"   
"No, but after me there will only come another leader! And without the Ronins to worry about, that leader WILL survive and will rule your world just as my brother always wanted. I will die for such a cause any day," she finished off.  
"Why? If you wanted him dead, and you willing to die too. Why not just kill him and you when you're in his body?" Kento questioned.  
"Because it's all the more painful for you if you have to do it!" she said, his voice cracking.   
"NO!" Kento screamed. "No, it's just not fair! You can't do this." This was the first time Kento had felt totally lost. When he had to kill Talpa and knew it would kill Ryo, it was different; he was staring at Talpa, but now he was staring at Ryo! He couldn't do it.   
"All's fair in love and war!" Trots said with a smirk.   
"Is that so?" came a female voice. Kayura stood there, her two swords she used to fight with were strapped to her back and in her hand she held the staff. "Well, then this must be fair too." The circles on the staff started to chime as they hit one another. "BEGONE, EVIL, BEGONE FROM THE BODY OF GOOD!"   
Trots screamed; at first it was Ryo's voice, but then it turned to Trot's voice; a form of black left Ryo's body and he fell limp. Trot's body landed to the side with a thump.   
Daller jumped down and scooped her up "You may have won the battle, but the war is far from over! So long, Ronins." Daller threw down a ball; it exploded and black smoke rose.   
Sage waved his hands in front of his face, trying to clear the smoke. When he did clear it Sage realized they were no longer at the castle. "Where are we?" Sage asked no one.   
The chiming of the staff startled them all. "You are home; Daller knew they were beat and forced you home. The Dynasty is no longer a threat. For a while, you may rest easy. But always be prepared. THEY WILL BE BACK," Kayura explained.   
Sekhmet and Cale came up behind her, then came Dais holding a limp body. Sage gasped, realizing it was Ryo. The other Ronins made other noises when they realized who it was. Dais gently set down the limp body in front of the Ronins.   
Dais looked up. "He is still breathing. He is lucky, and very strong. Stronger than before. I am glad we are no longer enemies!" Dais stood up and stood by Kayura.   
Kayura tapped the staff and it started chiming. "Wait," Rowen shouted. "Where are the girls?"   
Kayura smiled. "At their own homes." With that Kayura and the warlords disappeared. Sage went over to the limp Ryo; his armor had already gone down to his subarmor. 


	14. Epilogue

"Talpa Has a Sister!"  
By Wildfire   
Epilogue   
Kento sat on his bed looking at the notebook his mom had given him. Kento sighed, then opened the notebook and started writing.  
Okay, my mom said that if I wouldn't talk to her about where I was for four weeks that I was to write down my feelings and junk. I don't know, she said she would never read it, but that I had better use it. Anyway, from what I hear Sage is in a lot of trouble, because we were at his house. I guess I oughta tell you a little about why we were at his house. We go over there every summer; Sage's parents leave every summer with his two sisters and grandfather. Sage agrees to stay home and manage the dojo as long as he can have some friends stay over. It's worked great till now. I also hear that Ryo's foster mom was so mad that he disappears for so long that she called child welfare to get him a new foster mom, saying that she didn't want him anymore; I hope he doesn't move to far. Cye's mom was just really glad to see him, she was really worried about him. Even Rowan's dad was worried about him, I guess that Rowen and him are out camping for the weekend. Rowan's dad kept saying that it was his fault for not spending more time with him.   
Kit decided to stay in the Dynasty with Derek! I thought Ryo was going to kill her when we found out she was in love with a Warlord. Rowen was heartbroken when he found out Kat wanted to stay with her sisters in the Dynasty. But Rowen told her that she should go with her family. All three of the cousins went home; they said that they had been away for far too long. Ryo tried to get them to stay, saying their 'gifts' might come in handy. They just said that they had to go and that they were sure if the Dynasty did come back that there'd be someone else to help them. None of us know what that means, but I'm sure we will someday.   
Chi Chi wrote me the other day, saying that our relationship just wasn't going to work. Gee, she couldn't even tell me herself. Whatever, I guess that Cye and Sage got the same letter from Britt and Tina. Mariah left the day after we got back; Ryo was still out cold, so he didn't get to say goodbye to her. He was really upset, but all he said about it was 'I wish her well.' School starts in about three weeks and we're all grounded until then. Well, that's it. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  
Kento   
*****   
Mariah stood in some kind of forest; the trees all looked as if they had been there for thousands of years. She had arrived three days ago and she still had no clue on how to find her parents. She had run into a little girl the second day she had arrived but as soon as the little girl saw her she ran away.   
Mariah turned and went a different way; she didn't know where she was going. The odd thing was she never saw anything that was alive. Besides the little girl, Mariah seemed to be the only living thing. She was starting to wondering if Kayura got the wrong planet. Mariah was about to turn around again when she heard footsteps. Mariah stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. She stood perfectly still for a while, just waiting; soon she saw a whole bunch of... soldiers came. But they looked like her; some were male and some female. They had some armor on but it didn't look anything like Ryo's; it was thinner and a light brownish color. Mariah took a step back; when they were close enough they stopped. One of the people took a step forward; he was big, he had ears like Mariah, and his head was shaved. He took out a spear-like thing from a buckle on his waist; the soldier twirled the weapon around a little then threw it in to a tree. He stared at Mariah for a while, then he started to walk around her. He looked her up and down for a while then nodded his head.   
"What clan are you from?" he asked quickly.   
Mariah eyes got big. "Cl... cl... clan? I... I..." Mariah looked around; they looked ready to kill. Mariah swallowed hard, and then stood up straighter. "I do NOT know what you are talking about!" Remember to stay calm! Remember the things Ryo taught you. You can do this! If they attack fight back then run!   
"Of course you do! The clan you were born into! Don't be smart with me, young lady, or else! I would hate to have to animal you!" he said, then crossed his arms   
"ANIMAL me? What is that! Look, I think..." Mariah put her hands up.   
"Stop! That's it! You would have made a great soldier, but not now! Take her!" He turned to leave, and a girl came towards her. She took out her spear and walked towards Mariah. Mariah took a step back. The girls eyes widened; the guy that had been talking to her earlier whirled around. "HOW DARE you back away! Come here now! OR I will be forced to use the Three-tree on you!" Mariah stared at him. She had no idea what he was talking about. "I SAID come here! WHAT IS YOUR CLAN! I well not ask again. It's sku-ske, isn't it! It has to be, by your manner! I don't know what else it could be!"   
Mariah calmed herself down. Calm down! Think! I have to remember the... clan? Oh, all I remember is fire! And a few memories of my mother and father! What was it! Ahh, Mom said something about the sky-lee; is that a clan, though? Well, it's worth a try. "I am from the clan sky-lee?" she said hopefully.  
The group of soldiers gasped; the man from earlier stepped up again. "Sk... s... sky-lllee? Why didn't you say so? I am so sorry, we never meant to show any rudeness to you. Please forgive us." The man bowed, and the others bowed as well   
Mariah looked at them. What did I say? What does sky-lee mean, anyway! Oh, I wish I could remember! Oh well, better play it. "Yes, well... you are forgiven. But I need to find someone, or someones. Could you help me?"   
"We will do whatever you wish. You have showed us kindness, beyond reason! What do you wish?" the man said again.  
Mariah smiled. "Well, first, what is your name?"   
They all gasped again; Mariah wondered if she had said something wrong. "Of course, please excuse our rudeness. I am Skllu, this..." Skllu gestured to a young woman, "is Allsae, and this is Skala; Skala is from Sky-lee as well, so you may know him."   
Mariah looked down. "Can't say that I've ever really met him." Mariah started to fidget with her fingers.   
Skala stepped forward. "It's odd, I've not only been in the Sky-lee from birth but I stayed in the royal palace my whole life too! I thought I knew everyone in that clan. I GUESS I was wrong." Skala glared at her.   
Skllu looked back and forth between the two. "We will take her to the king; he will know who she is. He knows everyone, AND if he doesn't, his advisor will." Skllu turned to Mariah. "I hope you don't mind?"   
Mariah put on a fake smile. "Of course I don't." Like I really have a choice! Maybe this king will know who I am.   
*****   
Ryo sat in a car waiting for some guy to come out. The guy was from child welfare; he was assigned to find Ryo a new home. Ryo knew the guy, it was the same guy that had found him homes in the past. His name was Eric and he was a JERK!   
Ryo watched as Eric came bursting out of the building; he was a tiny man, he had a potbelly and no muscle, he had short brown hair with a bald spot on the top of his head, and his eyes were a dull brown. Eric got in the car, pulled out some keys, and started the car. Ryo stayed silent for the ride to his NEW home. Eric pulled up to a tiny house; the house looked old and ratty, it looked as if no one had ever lived in it.   
Eric turned and looked at him. "Ryo, this is your last chance! I didn't think they should have even given you this chance. Do you understand what I'm saying, Ryo?"   
"That if I don't make this work I'll be yelled at?" Ryo said in a smart-aleck tone.   
"NO! It means if this doesn't work for any reason you'll be going to an orphanage." Ryo's eyes widened. "YES, an orphanage, but not just any orphanage; if you go to this one you'll be there till you're twenty-one!"   
Ryo stared at him "Any reasons? Meaning..."   
"MEANING THAT I don't care if she's beating you! If it doesn't work out, you are going to a orphanage for troubled kids! And you'll be there till you're twenty-one. NOW get your things out of my car!" Eric glared at him for a while. Finally Ryo got out of the car and got his three bags out of the backseat. Ryo didn't have many things and he planned to keep it that way. As soon as Ryo shut the door of the car, Eric pulled away. Sighing, Ryo started up to the house. He looked to his right; in an alley crouched a white tiger. He could do this, with his friends he could do anything. He would make this work. He would not being going back to any orphanage, not even for a day.   
*****   
Sage sat in his room, rolling his orb over his fingers. He had spent the last few days hiding in his room as his parents and grandfather tried to get out of him of where he was. Then when they couldn't they started yelling. How he hated yelling!   
"SAGE!" his father's voice yelled up "Could you come down here? PLEASE."   
Here we go again, Sage thought to himself as he rolled off his bed. Sage opened his door as slow as he could. Then headed down the stairs, halfway down the stairs and he could already see the living room. His mother sat in a chair, and his father and grandfather sat on the couch, leaving the other chair for him. Sage put on a fake smile as he entered the room.  
"Sage, honey, have a seat," his mother said, gesturing to the other chair.   
Sage smiled. "Sure," Sage said and the sat on the floor. His grandfather shook his head.   
His father sat up straighter. "Sage... you know that we all love you very much, right?" His father went on before Sage could respond.   
Sage sat calmly on the floor; he hadn't really heard anything since the 'you know we love you' statement. He had heard it all before. He somewhat heard his father saying something about not yelling, but he didn't care. It would be the same as before, say they weren't going to yell, then when they didn't hear what they wanted to hear they'd start yelling. His mom would then try to calm everyone down, which would start even more yelling, and he would go back up to his room until they called him down again, and it would start again.   
"Sage, SAGE! Have you heard a word I've said?" Sage's father stared at him. Sage looked up.   
"Yeah, you don't want to yell at me, but you love me and want to know where I was, right?" Sage said and started to fiddle with his orb again.   
Sage's father looked at him, and raised his voice. "Sage, if you're involved any some kind of drug or something, we can get you help! But we need you to tell us where you were!"   
Sage smiled, "I was saving the world from a crazy girl who wanted to prove she was better than her brother."   
"DAMMIT, SAGE! This is serious! We were worried. We come home to find you nowhere to be FOUND! And then when you finally do show up you refuse to tell us where you were! HOW LONG WERE YOU GONE! HOW LONG WAS THE DOJO 'CLOSED'!"   
"Honey, please don't yell." Sage's mother stood up.   
Sage's grandfather sat up. "SUSAN! Don't tell him he can't yell at his boy! If he was in my day, none of this would have happened. MY father would have told me to get a stick! And I would have been switched until I did tell!"   
Anger flared in his mother's eyes. "YES, well, we're not in your day, ARE WE!"   
"Don't you use that tone of voice with me, young lady! YOU are still my daughter! I don't care how old you are, you will respect me!"   
"You will not..."   
Sage took his chance to escape to his room again. Sage plopped down on his bed, he could still hear them yelling down below. He smiled to himself. They probably still thought he was down there; when they realized he wasn't it would go quiet. Then it would start again.   
Sage looked at his watch. 5:02; he wondered if the next fight would happen before or after dinner. What was he saying, it would probably happen 'during' dinner.   
*****   
Mariah was starting at a huge castle. "Come on." She was pushed through the door. Skllu looked down on her. "From someone of the sky-lee clan, you act as if you have never been here." Mariah smiled nervously at him. "Come."  
Mariah stepped in through a huge door; the room was huge and it was pretty much empty, except for three chairs in the front. The middle chair was bigger than the other two; there was a man sitting in it. A big man, he had the same black hair as Mariah did. He seemed familiar, but Mariah didn't know why. To the left of him sat an empty chair; it was a little shorter than the middle one but not much, and to the right of the man sat a much smaller chair than the first two. A man also sat in that chair; he had lots of muscle, but was quite short.   
The short man stared at her. "I do not know her," he pointed towards Mariah, "she is not of the sky-lee clan, of that I am sure!" The short man turned to the bigger man. "Your Highness, do you know who she is?"   
Mariah was now sure he must be the king of this place; the king smiled at her. "It is strange, I do not recognize her, but... at the same time I do. Child, you say you're from the sky-lee clan?"   
"I think so," Mariah said, eyeing the guards.  
"You either are or you're not, there is no thinking to it! What is your name?" the king asked her.   
Mariah opened her mouth to talk, but before she could a man came in and bowed low to the ground, then stood up. "The queen!" The man backed out of the doors and in his place came a beautiful woman; her hair flowed around her gently, her white dress looked more like it was part of her instead of it just being clothing.   
"My lovely wife, to what do I owe this lovely visit?" the King said, standing up and guiding the woman to the empty chair. Mariah kept her head down.   
"I hear there is a woman in the castle that nobody knew, and I came to see." As the king widened his eyes, the queen just smiled. "News travels fast. Young lady, what is your name?"   
Mariah kept her head down. "My... my..."   
"CHILD! Do look up when you're talking, I can't understand a word you're saying!" the queen said, snapping her fingers. Mariah looked up and the queen gasped; a tear ran down the queen's face.   
"My dear, what's wrong!" the king asked. "Maybe you should go lie down."   
The queen stared at him for a second. "You don't see it?"   
The king looked puzzled. "See what? My dear, I really think you should lie down for a while."   
The queen glared at him. She grabbed her necklace; it was a heart-shaped locket. The Queen opened it. "LOOK!"   
The king looked at the locket then at Mariah again. He stood up and walked towards her. "Wh... what is your name?" the King asked again.   
"Mariah." Mariah dropped to her knee. "Your Highness," she added quickly. She looked up at the king and swallowed.   
The queen stepped forward. "Where are you from? What are you doing here?"   
"I am searching for my parents; they left me in the Dynasty by accident; Kayura sent me here to find them," Mariah said, looking from the king to the queen.  
"Well then," the queen said, smiling, then helped her up, "you found them."   
Mariah's eyes widened. The king handed her the locket; on one side was a picture of a little girl, and on the other was the king and queen together; the queen was holding a little baby. Mariah smiled. 


End file.
